


The Last Heir

by isaymeow, MikazukiMunechika305



Category: Hakuouki
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-10
Updated: 2016-03-11
Packaged: 2018-05-25 19:27:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 40,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6207502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/isaymeow/pseuds/isaymeow, https://archiveofourown.org/users/MikazukiMunechika305/pseuds/MikazukiMunechika305
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Miyuki Tsukuyomi is the sole heir of the first Oni, making her a descendant of Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto. She is hell bent on stopping Kōdō from using her bloodline to create the rasetsu, and wants revenge for the destruction of her clan. Along the way fate entangles her with another demon, and Miyuki soon finds herself desiring more than just revenge.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Just Passing Through

In the darkness a scream could be heard as an old woman was slumped to the ground, begging for her life as two men in blue and white haori struck her with their blades. The smell of blood filled the air, leading her right to the disgusting scene. Once again the Bakufu’s lap dogs had let their abominations escape, endangering the lives of their fellow race. Her lips curled into a snarl as she spoke, “I will not let you filthy creatures continue to exist.” They turned around with bloodlust in their eyes, fixating on her as if she was their next meal. Her eyes flickered from grey to golden as she drew her katana, “prepare to pay for your sins.“

As she slaughtered the rasetsu she felt a presence watching her, but chose to ignore it and focus on the task at hand. After all, she couldn’t let one of Kōdō’s creations get away with taking yet another life. They were easy prey, so she made her moves swiftly, slicing both through the heart in order to draw less attention. Once finished with her work she quietly flung the blood off her sword before sheathing it and approached the body of the old woman. Miyuki softly closed her eyelids and whispered, “Sorry that I didn’t make it here faster, but at least you can rest now.”

“Another female demon?” Shiranui mumbled as he watched the young woman drawing her sword from the rooftop. With the usual playful grin on his lips he spun his gun around his finger. She defeated both furies not only quickly, but with single accurate strikes right through their hearts. Impressed with what he saw, Shiranui jumped down to investigate further. “Yo! I didn’t know there were more of us in Kyoto.”

“I was wondering how long it would be before you introduced yourself,” she quipped while turning around, “Although I am grateful that you have manners and didn’t interrupt.” Miyuki stood there and looked at the tall, slender oni in front of her. She wiped the blood off her cheek with her hand before pushing back a stray piece of her long black hair. “To answer your question, I’m not from here…just passing through.” Miyuki locked onto his brown eyes and said in a serious tone, “In fact, if you value living it’s best that you forget you ever saw me…”

“Ahhh, to be honest I have to tell Kazama that you were here in his region. And about the thing with me valuing my life…” He spun his gun around his finger again, a playful grin with an obvious hint of sarcasm on his lips. “No offense, but I think I can defend myself against you in a fight.”

“Men, why do they always have to do things the hard way,” she sighed while her hand sat on the hilt of her Katana, “You have no idea what you’re getting yourself into.” Miyuki really didn’t want to fight one of her own, but the last thing she needed was another clan’s leader to get in the way of her revenge. She drew her blade once again and dug her sandals into the dirt road, “Are you ready? Make sure to not hold anything back.”

“Heh, I don’t know what ‘holding back’ means…but the same goes for you!” Before she could answer, Shiranui had fired a bullet towards her and loaded his gun again, ready to send off a second shot.

Miyuki dodged the first shot easily and quickly lunged forward with her katana towards his chest. She knew being a demon he would easily dodge it, so she drew her short sword as well, aiming right towards his pistol with her other hand. She felt the breeze whiz past her as he moved aside and fired another round. Miyuki quickly deflected the bullet with her blade and said, “Not bad, What’s you’re name?”

With another fluid motion she spun and swung her blade towards him, using that as a distraction while kicked her leg towards the back of his knee to try and catch him off-guard.

“You’re not half bad,” he sarcastically chuckled as he jumped out of the reach of her kick, “I’m Shiranui Kyo. You?”

“Miyuki…” She said while dodging another bullet, “and before you ask, only those I trust get my clan’s name.” Miyuki kept up her attacks on Shiranui, finally getting close enough to graze one of his stray pieces of hair. She had forgotten how difficult it was to fight a true demon in comparison to the rasetsu.

“Heh, a woman of mystery then,” he grinned while having to quicken his pace in order to avoid her strikes. For a female demon she was strong, and extremely skilled which made her much more interesting than the Yukimura girl. A set of footsteps were approaching quickly towards them, so he stopped reloading his gun and said, “Seems we’re being interrupted, Humans are approaching.” He looked at her and asked, “are you gonna kill them too?”

“The Shinsengumi got here faster than I expected,” she said while sheathing her sword, “This may surprise you, but I actually need them alive.” Miyuki had gone to Kyoto after learning that Kōdō was using both the Shinsengumi and Shogunate to further his experiments on the water of life; or rather the blood that was taken from her clan. Just the thought of it made those awful memories flood through her head. As much as she needed to keep her identity a secret, this was far more important. “Shiranui, sorry to kill the mood but,” she said with a smile while motioning towards the rooftop, “how about we pause for now…”

“Maybe that’d be good,” he agreed, also smiling, and moved after her. “But don’t forget, I’m gonna tell Kazama about you. If you got a problem with that, go complain to him, not to me.” In his opinion, this girl was quite interesting. “Let’s play again sometime,” he waved her off, nodding briefly.

The men in blue haori moved closer to the scene in the alley, focussing on the dead up ahead. “I’ve found ‘em Hajime-kun,” said a brown haired fellow, “Seems someone got to them first…again.” The second man bent down and inspected the scene, “It appears to be the same blade as before Okita-san. We should inform the commander of this.”  Sannan sighed and said, “another failed attempt, this would be so much easier if we still had Kōdō-san.” The man named Okita shrugged, “I don’t care about the rasetsu…I’m just pissed that I didn’t get to draw my blade. Maybe the bastard who deprived me of my fun is still around here somewhere.”  
  
Miyuki quietly watched the exchange and clenched her fist in frustration. Kōdō was no longer with the Shinsengumi. Where did he go, and what was he up to? She had a bad feeling that her quest for revenge was going to get a lot more complicated.


	2. Shimibara Stories

It had been a few weeks since Miyuki had arrived in Kyoto, but her search for Yukimura Kōdō  had gone cold. Needing to take her mind off things for a while she changed into traditional male samurai garb and walked to Shimibara. It wasn’t hard for her to blend in with the crowd, and soon made her way to a room. After the maiko left she took a sip of warm sake from the saucer and stared out the balcony at the courtyard below. Things were quiet, or rather far too quiet for this time of night. With a sigh she said aloud, “I hope he doesn’t hide for much longer, I’m growing tired of waiting.” 

Shiranui jumped up onto the roof of the house in Shimabara and wondered to himself, “how did I get here again?” Oh right, Kazama had told him to have an eye on Yukimura Chizuru. He had seen the girl come here with her Shinsengumi friends, though he wasn’t sure what a girl like her was doing there. The black-haired demon shook his head confusedly as he grew bored just watching the room from afar. He heard a familiar voice down below, and jumped down onto the balcony to find the demon girl from before. “Ah, it’s you again,” he smirked remembering their fight. By the cup of sake in her hand he surmised she was there to relax, so he made sure to keep his hands away from his revolver.

Miyuki looked up and answered, “So we meet again, Shiranui.” Her eyes glanced over him noting that his gun was still tucked away, so he didn’t show any signs of picking back up their fight. She stood up and left the room to join him on the balcony, bringing the Sake tray with her. “I doubt you’re here for the same reasons as I,” she said casually while leaning against the banister, “I hope you’re not here to start trouble for the Satsuma, I was looking forward to a quiet evening.” She had heard that Kazama was working with the Satsuma, which she thought was odd considering his clan’s usual disdain for interfering with humans. She lifted the saucer of sake to her lips and took another sip, making sure to never take her eyes off the demon in front of her.  
  
“Well,” He said while staring at her with the same level of caution,“I really have no reason to tell you, but I’m not here voluntarily. Honestly I wouldn’t have expected to meet _you_ here.” 

She smirked at his response, knowing it was odd for a woman to be at a place like this. Miyuki leaned in towards Shiranui and said, “I’ll let you in on a little secret…I’m full of surprises.” 

It wasn’t of his business, but he wondered if this would be a good chance to get her to explain why she was there. After all he couldn’t go to Kazama unless he had some bit of information to pass along. “So why are you still here,” he asked, “If you tell me something interesting then maybe I can share something in return.”

He seemed willing to exchange some information with her, so she’d take his bait and bite. Miyuki’s grin faded as she said, “Fine, maybe it’s the alcohol or the boredom…but I’ll tell you a little story that nobody’s heard before.”    
  
“A long time ago there was a demon who did the unthinkable and betrayed a fellow clan in order to further his quest for power,” she explained. “Through his greed he ended up wiping the clan away from existence,” Miyuki glanced out at the courtyard as her face showed no emotion, “ however one demon managed to survive.” 

“The lone demon grew up without a home, wandering around alone, unable to trust anyone,” she continued, “The only thing that kept them going was their promise to take the life of the one who destroyed everything they held dearly.” A forced laugh escaped her lips as she poured another drink. “What a shitty story huh? I hope you have something better to tell.”

“So that’s why, huh…” Shiranui thought to himself. ‘Unable to trust anyone’; that reminds him of a certain someone. He took a cup for himself to pour himself a drink as well. “I don’t even remember how he came into the human's’ world. I guess it was because his older brothers and sister challenged him… ‘you won’t be able to survive out there on your own,’ they said, and so he left them in order to show them that he could survive on his own. He didn’t have a hard time at first, but then he met a man, a human. This human got into a fight with the demon, and they almost were at the same level of strength. They let it end in a draw and eventually became friends. But the human suffered from an incurable illness, and no matter how hard he tried to defeat it, it got worse and worse.”  
  
Now, Shiranui’s voice grew a bit sad and he hoped Miyuki wouldn’t notice it. “He soon died and the demon was left alone. He had nobody left so he travelled around alone. After some time he met another demon who was the proud and possessive leader of the west. Since he had nothing better to do, he allied himself with that demon, looking for someone he could trust like he had trusted the weak human who had died before.” His voice really was bitter now and he hated himself for not being able to hide his feelings better. “Well… that’s it. Basically. Not really much better than yours, though…”

As he told his own story she realized why her intuition told her to be honest with him, they were far more alike than she thought. Alone and wandering after they both lost something dear to them. “Normally I prefer to drink alone,” She poured him another round and said, “But it seems we are both seeking the same thing, something to fill the void of those we lost.”    
  
“Heh, I usually don’t drink at all.” Because there was no need to. Would he find someone like Takasugi when he went drinking? - No, so he didn’t go. “But once or twice in a long time, it’s okay.”  
  
“So this Kazama fellow,” Miyuki said changing the subject, “He’s the prideful and possessive type? Scary…“  With a playful smirk she asked, “does he know about me yet…or is there a way can I convince you to keep my dirty little secrets to yourself?” 

When she asked about Kazama, he nodded. “Very, very prideful. If there’s any topic he can talk about, it’s pride and how we demons shouldn’t give up our pride. He loves to lecture people about hanging around with ‘lowly humans.’ Not all of them are that bad, though. I haven’t told him about you yet. I’ll have to eventually, but maybe I can keep what you just told me a secret. If you promise to keep what I told you a secret.”

“Such an old fashioned fellow, though this sounds more like the Kazama clan than what I’ve heard recently,” she said in a low voice almost to herself, “I still wonder what his motives with the Satsuma are though.”  She smiled now knowing that he hadn’t spilled the beans about her yet. Miyuki wasn’t a fool, she knew Kazama would eventually figure out her ancient heritage of the first demon clan. With what Shiranui told her about him she knew for sure that she didn’t particularly want that type of attention.    
  
“In order to find my fairytale happy ending I need to stay a ghost in order to ensure my enemy doesn’t go back into hiding again,” she said, “so in all honesty, the more you keep quiet the better.” She took a seat and emptied the last of the sake into her own cup. She wondered how much more Sake she would need to drink before getting that warm, fuzzy feeling she longed for on that chilly evening.  “Oh and don’t worry…You’re secret is safe, after all the dead don’t talk right?” she said with a wink. 

He was about to say something else when suddenly there were loud voices coming from the courtyard below. “A fight, huh~? I feel like fighting right now, but on the other hand, I’ll guess I’ll go back to Kazama now. He’s gonna have some other stupid tasks for me to do again… let’s meet again sometime.” There was no need for him to mention if he meant for talking or for fighting. He just meant both of them, and he was sure Miyuki knew that. “Or do you have more things to say?”   
  
“I’m sure we’ll meet up again soon,” she said with a smirk, “Seems like the Kami of fate has chosen to cross our paths here in Kyoto.” Miyuki stared down at the brawl and recognized her Maiko in the middle of it. She returned her attention to Shiranui and responded, " anything else to say? Perhaps just keep quiet, I would hate to have to kill you since you’re starting to grow on me.”  Miyuki drank the last of her sake and said, “If you’ll excuse me it seems I have to save my Maiko from that brawl…Otherwise I’ll never get my next round.  I’ll see you around Shiranui.” Miyuki flashed him a smile before jumping over the edge of the balcony into the melee below. “Hey, get your hands off that Geisha now unless you want to taste the steel of this blade!”


	3. Date Night

"You really need to be careful," Miyuki said while stepping over several knocked out ronin, "dusk isn't a time for a girl like you to be wandering alone." She had been watching the Yukimura girl, but instead of leading her to Kōdō she just seemed to get herself into trouble all the time. "Amazing! I’ve never seen a woman fight like you before!” The girl seemed genuinely in awe by her strength as she bowed, “Thank you for saving me, My name is Chizuru...who are you?"  
  
Miyuki smiled and said, “Just a traveling ronin, but you are welcome Chizuru. Now why don’t you run back to your friends before you get into any more trouble.” The girl bowed once more and said, “Thank you, I hope I can meet you again” She scurried off down the alley back onto the main road, and Miyuki let out a sigh as she looked up, “You might as well come down here, I know you’re there.”

Shiranui grinned and jumped down to join her. “Admit it, you like me. This can’t be coincidence after all.”

“Oh no, you’ve figured me out Shiranui! I’ve completely fallen head over heels for you,” Miyuki said in a dramatic voice, “Oh please tell me you feel the same as I do.” 

He decided to play along with this little game as he gushed, “Oh yes! Miyuki, I can’t imagine ever living without you!” They both could barely hold it together for a few more seconds before a boisterous laugh erupted from their mouths. “We just keep meeting each other when we expect it the least, huh? I dunno, I’m starting to like you a little. Ya know, like friendly rivals.”

“Friendly Rivals, I like that term, it suits us well.” She assumed he was there on orders from Kazama again, meaning she had to be a bit more careful in her observation of the girl. Miyuki leaned against a shop wall, “That Chizuru girl just can’t seem to keep herself out of trouble, I suppose that’s why she surrounds herself with so many Shinsengumi men all the time.” She pulled out some Onigiri from her bag, offering him one, “Though I must admit, as far as humans go the tall redhead is kind of attractive.” 

Shiranui took the onigiri he had been offered and took a bite of it. “Thanks...Hey, you’re not gonna leave me for Harada, are ya?” he asked with a fake frown.

"Harada, so that’s his name,” she teased, “I don’t know, I may have to if you break my poor little heart.”

“No, I could never break your heart! How can I prove my eternal love for you?” This little game was fun, it gave an entertaining variety to what his everyday life was like. “Yeah, this girl really is something, and I don’t mean this in the positive way. I don’t know why Kazama wants her specifically. He could have this Sen girl who offered herself as his wife, but he refused and is still trying to get Yukimura,” he continued, “Mhn, good onigiri, by the way. It’s been awhile since I’ve eaten one. 

"You're welcome." Miyuki smirked while Shiranui told her about Kazama’s obsession with the girl. She didn’t admit that it was a relief however that he already had his sights on a wife. With female demons being so rare she sure as hell didn’t want him chasing after her. “So your boss wants the Yukimura heir, how cute” Miyuki said before taking a bite of her food, “Honestly I’m more interested in who’s been following her.”  
  
"Someone's been following her,” he repeated with an inquisitive look on his face, "Are you gonna find out who it is?"

“For once I have information that you don’t,” Miyuki grinned, “I already know who it is; her twin brother named Kaoru.” He had been dressing as a woman at first, and seemed to be antagonizing one of the Shinsengumi men she was with who had tuberculosis. “He’s been watching her every move as if he’s waiting for something,” she explained, “He has a vile of the Ochimizu in his possession as well.” She let out a sigh and said, “I’m not sure what that brat is up to, but it can’t be anything good considering that girl’s luck.”  
  
“Huh~” he sighed, “I wonder why he’s stalking his own sister, maybe he has a sister complex? Or he just has nothing better to do? But I guess stalking someone wherever they go is not really a relaxing thing in your free time, is it?”   
  
“Not many things give me the creeps anymore, but that kid sure does,” Miyuki said in a serious tone, “He just has that psychotic look in his eyes, ya know? The one where you’re not sure what he’s thinking…then again you may not want to know what’s going on in there.” 

“I think I’ve done enough stalking of my own today,” Miyuki said with a smirk, “I’m in the mood to have a little fun tonight.” She playfully stared at him with her grey eyes while twisting her hair around a finger, “how about you take me out on a date and we can start a little trouble?”

When she mentioned a date, Shiranui cocked his head to the side slightly. “A date? Start some trouble? That sounds tempting, I haven’t done that in a while. Yeah, we can do that!” He was sure this would be exactly the kind of fun he needed right now after spending days shadowing Yukimura.

Miyuki smiled and jumped up onto a nearby rooftop as they roamed the city for a bit. She wasn’t sure why she had changed so much over the past few weeks, but she was starting to enjoy this little friendly rival thing she had going on with Shiranui. She peered down at the road below and spotted a surprise. “Well, well, well, if it isn’t the Shinsengumi,” she said while pointing at the boisterous trio involved in a fight outside a bar, “Looks like even though they are off duty they still start trouble.” Miyuki turned to Shiranui and said, “I’ve never fought them before…want to pick on them for a while?”

“The Shinsengumi? Heh, Looks like Harada’s also there, hat’ll be fun, then. I can leave him for you if you want me to.” Usually, he wasn’t in such a generous mood and he wondered why he was now. “He’s not only good-looking, but also good at fighting." 

“Unfortunately I doubt he’d be the type to fight a pretty little demon like me,” Miyuki said with a wink, “so I think I’ll let you both fight each other for my heart while I take on the other two.” Miyuki jumped down from the roof onto the street, and in a few quick moves she skillfully took out the remaining handful of guys with her bare hands. The Shinsengumi trio appeared to be shellshocked as the one with the spiked hair muttered out,”…damn…” Harada looked at her with a grin and muttered, “now _that’s_ my kind of woman.”

“You boys looked like you needed a little help there,” she said while flicking her long hair behind her, “I hope you don’t mind that I stepped in.” The short one rubbed his eyes and said, “You….you’re a girl?!” Miyuki giggled and said, “A girl? Sorry but I’m not a child…right Shiranui?” She slowly unsheathed her Katana and said, “How about I show you what a real woman can do?”

“You have no idea what she’s capable of,” Shiranui smirked before he turned towards the red haired captain. “Ne, Harada. She told me the two of us to  should fight for her heart. You gonna go for it? If you win, maybe she’ll go on a date with–” Without even giving him time to finish, the red spear shot forward. “I don’t have to fight for a woman Shiranui, they fight for me... _but_ in this case I'll make an exception.”

“You sure are in an interesting mood today; could it be that you’ve fallen for Miyuki at first sight?" he teased and dodged the next thrust, "why don'y you show her what you've got." He did not hate Harada, he just liked the way they fought each other. It always was fun, and it taught him a lot about the humans. He was so much like Takasugi that even thinking about Harada almost hurt. Shiranui shook his head and fired another load of bullets, every single one purposely missing his rival by a hair.   
  


The two men hesitated, and the short one grumbled about not being able to fight a woman. “What’s taking you all so long,” she teased, “are you taking the ladies’ first approach?” She quickly moved forward with her blade, forcing both Shinpachi and Heisuke to draw theirs. Miyuki was able to easily dodge each of their attempts to strike her, seeing their moves from a mile away. Even though she was a demon, she spent a great deal of time training and studying other warriors. In order to ensure the completion of her mission she had to be as strong as possible. She disarmed the short one and said, “Too weak, maybe you had too much to drink tonight little one.” Heisuke turned red from anger and embarrassment as she returned to fighting with Shinpachi, “...maybe you did too, you’re strikes are getting sloppy.”   
  
“I’m the second division captain, I won’t be beaten by some woman,” he said while finding some reserve strength. His repeated attacks had a lot of force behind them, but he left himself too many openings. After dodging a strike Miyuki spun around, and gave him a roundhouse kick right to the back. The guy fell forward cursing, and the short one started laughing hard. “Sano, she beat Shinpachi!”  
  
Miyuki raised her eyebrow and said, “I wouldn’t talk kid...I took you down first.” She sheathed her sword and moved over to where Harada and Shiranui were fighting. She couldn’t help but smile as she watched each of them dodge each other's attacks. She watched as Harada laid a strike on Shiranui’s arm, causing a his to leap from his mouth. She knew he was fine, but it sure did look like it stung.

“Is that all you’ve got, Harada,” teased Shiranui as the wound started to heal, "I guess I'll just win Miyuki's heart then."  
  
“Boys, please stop fighting over me” she sarcastically pleaded, “I don’t want either of you to get hurt!” Miyuki shot a longing gaze at both men, “Since you’re both evenly matched I think there’s only one way to settle this.” A smile formed on her lips as she raised her Katana, “the first one to disarm me will be worthy of my love.”

Shiranui looked at her in surprise. Was she getting serious about this now, or was it still part of their game? This was what he hated about women; he never could tell if they were serious about something or not. However he did know one thing, that he couldn’t lose to Harada in this fight.

"So the person that disarms you gets you're affection, heh I like that way of judgement,” He spun his spear around his hand, “Let’s go, Shiranui!” Shiranui's eyebrows furrowed as he muttered, "...well you seem pretty damn eager about this."

Miyuki smiled from ear to ear as the fight began. She had no intention of losing to either of them, this was all just for fun. She was a woman who had to accomplish her goal of revenge, love was the last thing she thought she needed in her life. The battle that erupted was challenging for once, allowing her to actually sharpen her rusty skills. Between having to dodge Harada’s long range spear, and Shiranui’s combination of gunshots and martial arts moves she was starting to break a sweat.

“I must admit you both are trying awfully hard,” she while drawing her short sword with her other hand, “I actually have to put effort into this.” Miyuki gracefully moved in a sequence of blocks, sword strikes, and kicks between the two men, each movement just as fluid and precise as the next. Her heart rate increased as their attacks began to pick up in intensity. This was nothing she couldn’t handle though, and she raised her own level of intensity to match.

As they continued for what seemed to be an eternity, she began to get lost in the fight. That’s when she made a single mistake and left an opening. Someone was able to trip up her footing, catching her off balance temporarily.

Harada took advantage of Miyuki’s opening, shooting his spear forward and crossing her blade. He could see herself starting to fall to the ground, and not wanting Harada to win he fired a shot twoards her wrist.

She started to worry as she saw the spear approach, but then she was struck by a clean shot that made Harada move back. Still grasping onto her blade Miyuki smirked as her wound already started to heal by the time she hit the ground. She knew exactly what he did, and realized that maybe he was looking out for her after all. Miyuki pretended to be in pain as she stood back up, but it was all for show. “Ne, are you ok,” Harada said looking concerned as both men moved towards her. She took advantage of this moment and quickly took out both of their legs with one swift kick that neither of them saw coming.

“So close, you both almost had me,” Miyuki said while hovering over them both, “Oh and don't worry; I’m perfectly fine. It would take much more than a single bullet to take _me_ down.” She sheathed her sword and said, “Looks like neither of you won, so my heart is still unclaimed.” Miyuki smiled and offered them each a hand to get up, “but I think you’ve both earned a consolation prize for your efforts.”

“…Next time, I’ll use my demon powers!” Shiranui exclaimed, “And just by the way. I only wanted to save you from having _him_ around you all the time.” The red haired captain protested, “Hey, I’m not bad company for a young woman.” Shirnaui seemed confused as Harada laughed playfully. “But yeah, would you mind telling us about this consolation prize?

“I’m not going to tell you what your prize is. Now both of you close your eyes...I promise you’ll both like it.” She waited till they followed her directions and went over to Shiranui first. She stood on her tiptoes and gave him a tiny peck on his cheek. “Thanks for taking me out on a fun date Kyo,” She whispered directly into his ear, “Though next time, don’t let me win.” Miyuki then went over to Harada who seemed to be waiting impatiently. She made him sweat for a moment before she softly pressed her lips on his cheek. She leaned in and whispered, “You know, you’re not bad Sanosuke, for a _human_.” With that she jumped back up onto the roof and said, “I need to get home before the sun rises, let’s do this again sometime boys.” She blew them a kiss and then disappeared into the night sky with a big smile on her face.   
  
“…Don’t let her win the next time?” Shiranui mumbled and rubbed his cheek. “Does that mean she thinks I’m better than her? I Hadn’t expected that…but how does she want me to win? Does she want me to aim at her head? If I do that it’ll take longer to heal than just her wrist even if she’s a demon.”

“You don’t understand women at all do you?” Harada said shaking his head, “Oh, and why are you suddenly running around with a girl?” Shiranui gave him an irritated look, “I’m not running around with her! We just keep meeting randomly and then we talk, kinda like you and me.”

“You’re blushing,” Harada replied as a grin formed on his lips.

“W-what?! I’m not blushing! Have you ever seen me blush before?”

“…No. That’s why I’m saying it. Do you like her?”

“Argh, No! You both can be so annoying. I want to kill both of you.” It wasn’t true though; He didn’t feel like killing either of them. “I’m leaving. I’ll make sure to bring her along when we meet next time.” While he still confused as to what her intentions were that night he knew one thing for certain, when she left she had a vastly different smile on her face than usual...and he did as well.


	4. Someone to Lean On

Miyuki had continued to follow Kaoru, and when he decided to kidnap his own sister she jumped in to thwart his plans. It didn’t take long for Miyuki to overpower him, and she soon had the brat pinned to the ground. “Tell me,” she growled while twisting the Katana in his chest, “Where is Kōdō?” Kaoru wriggled in pain, and when he didn’t respond she twisted the blade again. He began to mouth something in a whisper, unable to hear she leaned in. She suddenly heard the sound of a gun, and was overcome with pain in her stomach. As she stumbled two steps back she saw him holding a hidden revolver, and he shot her again this time in her arm.  
  
The wounds burned with pain, and she couldn’t help herself from letting out a groan as she slumped to the ground. He pulled out the Katana from his chest and tossed it away, while she immediately grabbed ahold of her bleeding stomach. This wasn’t how things were supposed to go. Miyuki felt a hand clasp around her throat and the cold barrel of a gun against her temple. “I don’t know who you are, but you’ll die for interfering.”   
  
With what strength she had Miyuki clawed at Kaoru’s hand, but he showed no signs of letting go. Instead he just laughed and pushed the gun into her skin harder. She could smell her own blood as it steadily flowed from her wounds.  “Any last words,” Karou said, “Or should I just end your pitiful existence now?” 

Shiranui sighed as he hear the sounds of a battle nearby. There were more fights than usual in the past few days, and it began to get annoying. He decided to take a look at it though in case there were more furies on a rampage. When he arrived where he had heard the sounds from, his eyes widened as he saw Chizuru's twin with his hand around Miyuki's throat. To make matters worse he smelled blood, her blood.  
  
“Yo, Miyuki. Are you in need of my help?”

“Nah, I feel like dying,” she forced out of her lips before Kaoru squeezed tighter. Even while wounded and on the verge of passing out, Miyuki was still her sarcastic self. “You’re with Kazama,” Kaoru said with an angered tone while recognizing Shiranui, “So that’s why she stopped me.” He yanked Miyuki up off the ground by her neck and pointed his revolver right between her eyes. “This will teach him a lesson to interfere with Kōdō’s plans and my sister!”  
  
“I wouldn’t have expected someone as pathetic as him to be able to defeat you,” Shiranui said as he took out his gun and spun it around his finger lazily, “But I’m in a good mood today so I suppose that I’ll help you out.”  A bullet flew towards Kaoru who dodged it, pulling Miyuki with him. As soon as he was standing properly again, he pushed her in front of himself, Are you really gonna shoot at me now? You’ll more likely hit her than me.” 

“Oh, you don’t know how my aim is.” He pointed the gun at Kaoru’s hand that still was strangling her, it wouldn’t really injure him, but the shock would make him loosen his grip. He fired the shot and it had the desired effect.

She didn’t have time to gasp for air, instead Miyuki took the moment to steal his own sword from his belt and drove it through his thigh as she fell back to the ground with a thud. 

Kaoru screamed with rage as he pulled out the sword and stumbled back. “Dammit, You both are going to pay for this, You’ll see,” he grumbled while making his escape like a dog with it’s tail between his legs.

Miyuki winced as she forced herself to sit upright and clasped the wound on her midsection. She let out a slight laugh as she said, “I can’t believe that brat was able to shoot me.” Miyuki used a nearby crate to stubbornly pull herself back up to her feet. She staggered a few steps before the pain overtook her again and she lost her legs from beneath her. While trying to ignore the pain she said to Shiranui, “I guess I should call you my hero or something like that huh?”

He stretched out his hand, offering it to her so she could take it and use him as support if she wanted to without forcing her. “You don’t have to. What are you gonna do now? I guess you should get that wound treated since it was a silver bullet. I'm not good at that stuff, but A doctor would be. Tough you don’t seem to be a person who relies on doctors when it comes to your health.”

Miyuki reached out and took his hand, trying desperately not to wince as she stood back up. She probably should see a doctor, but she didn’t know of any who treated demons in the city, or rather a doctor who wouldn’t ask questions. “I just need to bandage myself up and rest,” she said while cringing at the mess that were her clothes, “I just need to make it back to Ikeda.”

It was as if her body was angry with her as a wave of dizziness hit Miyuki again. As she lost her balance she instinctively grabbed onto both his arms, but she still felt unsteady. It was hard for someone like her who had been independent all of her life to ask for help, but between the intense pain and her blood loss she really couldn’t afford to be stubborn. “Dammit…I don’t think I can make it there by myself,” she muttered to herself as she claimed defeat and rested her head and both of her hands on his chest. “, would you take me home Shiranui, please?” Feeling embarrassed Miyuki stared at the ground as she waited for his reply, quietly hoping that he wouldn’t make fun of her for being so pathetic.

“…guess I don’t have a choice, huh? I can’t let you die here, you’re too interesting for that.” He couldn’t tell her that he started liking her after all. “I’ll take you to Ikeda and then, I’ll go find someone to treat your wounds. How’s that sound?” Shiranui carefully lifted her up, wondering when he had become so gentle. If it had been anyone else, he would left them for dead, but because it was Miyuki that felt so wrong. He surely had changed since their first meeting. “Feel free to pass out if you need to.”

“Thanks,” Miyuki said softly while resting her head against him. She could hear his heartbeat, and she wasn’t sure quite why it made her feel so relaxed. There was a feeling of warmth in that moment, and even Miyuki had to admit she kind of liked it. It was then that she realized what it felt like to trust someone with her life, or perhaps it was something more than that.

As he walked her back towards the inn she didn’t make any sarcastic comments, instead she did something that even surprised herself. “Tsukuyomi, that’s my clan’s name.” She entrusted him with her biggest secret, the heritage that she had kept hidden for all those years. Miyuki felt like there was no need for her to hide it from him anymore, after all she was trusting him with her life.  Letting out a quiet sigh of relief she closed her eyes to rest.

“Tsukuyomi…” he mumbled as he looked down to the girl, “A descendant of the first Oni…?” Suddenly her desire to stay hidden made much more sense since Kazama would likely want to make her his wife. She was considered demon royalty; but Shiranui didn’t care about that at all. To him she simply was an ordinary girl that was growing on him. He cared for her in a way he had only cared for one person before, his friend Takasugi.

Miyuki’s breath slowed down a little, but apparently she just had fallen asleep from the exhaustion. With a small smile, he entered the Ikeda inn; thankful that nobody was there so he could carry her to her room without anyone noticing. Once he got her onto the futon he left her alone to go look for a doctor. 

He was able to locate Doctor Matsumoto, who also looked after the Shinsengumi’s men. The doctor followed him back and treated Miyuki’s injuries without questioning anything, which was better for all of them. He didn’t even demand for Shiranui to pay him properly and left with his “best wishes for the young lady to get well soon.” As a sigh of exhaustion escaped his mouth, Shiranui sat down next to the futon to wait for Miyuki to wake up.

Miyuki slowly opened her eyes, unsure how long she had slept. As her sight began to focus on objects in the room, she realized that she was back at the Ikeda Inn. She pulled away the blanket and glanced down to find her wounds were wrapped neatly and that her clothing was replaced with a clean white yukata. That’s right; she was shot by Kaoru, and then he took her home.

She turned and saw that Shiranui was still next to her, appearing like he fell asleep while sitting upright. The sight brought a smile to her face, he looked so peaceful while sleeping. Without realizing it her eyes continued to stare at him. Miyuki hadn’t really noticed before the shape of his strong jawline, or the detailing on his dragon tattoo, and the way his shirt hugged his abdominal muscles.

Wait, What the heck was she doing? So they met up a few times and he helped her tonight, that was it. He just didn’t want her to pass out somewhere because she was interesting, that was it. What would anyone want with a demon like her anyway? “But he did take care of you,” Miyuki thought, “and you seem to trust him enough to tell him you full name.” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, exhaling slowly to clear her head. “I must have a fever,” she muttered quietly, “That is the only explanation.”

She heard Shiranui move, and turned to him. “Good morning sleepyhead,” she said with a smile while slowly moving to sit upright. There was a sudden, jarring pain in her midsection reminding her that she was shot. “Urgh…remind me to never, ever, take a bullet again,” Miyuki said with a small laugh.

“…‘sleepyhead?’” He repeated slowly while getting up and blinking away the sleepiness from his eyes, “Hey! Don’t move too much, you’ll break open your stitches...Matsumoto will come and check on you again later.”

She was surprised by his genuine concern, it was so unlike him. Perhaps he was just worked up over the possibility of her dying from her injuries. She shook the thoughts from her mind and instead focuses on the apology she owed him. “I made a big mistake tonight. I was too focussed on my revenge and let my guard down. To make things worse I ended up involving you in my mess.”

“I’m sorry that I’ve been such a pain in the ass…” She said while looking down at her blanket, “…but thank you, for everything.” She paused for a moment before continuing, “You could have ignored the fight and moved on. You didn’t have to help me or find a doctor. You didn’t have to wait here…but you did anyway.” Miyuki looked back up at him and said again with sincerity in her eyes, “so thank you, Shiranui.”

When she said she had involved him in his mess, Shiranui shook his head. “You don’t have to thank me. It was my own decision to help you.” He still wasn’t quite sure why he was doing this, but maybe he would figure it out later. “Since you’re not really able to do much I think I’ll stay with you,” he said, “that is if you don’t mind.”

“You want to stay…with me,” she repeated in a soft, surprised tone. He didn’t need her thanks, he chose to help her on his own. Now he was choosing to stay with her too? Her heart rate started to slowly increase. “I don’t mind at all,” she finally blurted out, “I mean…It’s fine. Though I won’t be exactly the most interesting company.” Why did she feel so flustered all of the sudden? Where was her normal cool, calm demeanor?

Miyuki slowly lowered herself back down onto the futon, careful not to strain her midsection. After a few moments of silence between them she spoke back up again, “I haven’t been stuck in bed like this since I was a child.” She went on to tell him a story about how she had a high fever and refused to listen to her mother. Miyuki kept leaving bed when she wasn’t watching, making her mother yell louder and get more angry each time. "I eventually snuck outside the house where my father was practicing his swordsmanship.”

”Instead of yelling at me he called me by my nickname, tiny warrior, and told me that the more sleep I got, the quicker I’d be able to go back to training with him.” A smile spread on her lips saying that she finally listened to him. He carried her back into the house quietly so her mother wouldn’t find out, and tucked her into bed. “Even as a kid I was so headstrong,” Miyuki said with a slight laugh, “He was the only one who could keep me in line. I think it was because I was so much like him.”  
  
“You snuck out your bed again and again, huh? I could see that happening for sure,” Shiranui smirked. “I think I was the same as a child, though even now Kazama keeps telling me how insurgent I am. I guess he’s right, but I’m not gonna change for him.” There was a quiet voice in the back of his head that continued his sentence, “but you already changed for Miyuki, and you aren’t quite finished changing yet.” He shook his head to get rid of that voice.

"I should probably be a good patient and get some rest huh,” Miyuki said while smiling as she closed her eyes, “The more sleep I get the faster I’ll be able to pick back up where we left off with our fight.”

“Our fight? - Ah, right, I almost had forgotten about it,” he said, “Well, uh, you’re probably right about needing rest.” Shiranui sat there and watched as she quickly fell asleep. He couldn’t help but stare at her and notice how beautiful she was. He felt his cheeks blush and immediately turned away, trying to shake the thoughts forming in his mind. He was just her shoulder to lean on, nothing more...or at least that’s what he was telling himself.


	5. Choices

Kazama was less than pleased as he paced back and forth. “Someone destroyed the Ochimizu at the Shinsengumi headquarters,” he explained to Shiranui and Amagiri, "I need answers; locate this unknown demon and bring them to me."    
  
Shiranui furrowed his eyebrows as he walked down the street deep in thought. “Destroyed all the Ochimizu. I hadn’t expected her to be this bold, though it is Miyuki.” Even though he had orders, he knew he couldn’t deliver her to Kazama. Not after everything they had gone through together. The fights, the secrets, and after he chose to help her. He sighed heavily and lifted his head when he heard screams and a familiar female voice.

“Didn’t you learn your lesson last time, Heisuke?” she grinned, “none of you stand a chance against me.” Her quarrel was with Kōdō, not with these humans. Miyuki would prefer not to engage them in a battle if she didn’t have to.

He immediately knew who was fighting and hurried to get to their battlefield. “Miyuki! What are you doing?!” It was a stupid question; he knew that she was here because of her revenge, but he needed to warn her so she could leave before Amagiri would arrive.

Miyuki turned around and said with a smile, “Oh you know, just the usual. Hanging around, starting a fire, kicking some Shinsengumi ass.” There was something different, he seemed to be in a hurry, or wait, was something wrong?  

“OI, YOU HAVEN’T WON YET,” yelled Heisuke in an annoyed tone while attacking in his rasetsu form, “I’m faster and stronger now like you.” Miyuki rolled her eyes to mess with the boy warrior more, easily blocking his strike with one hand on her katana. “Nope, still not fast enough.” 

“Hold on for one minute Shiranui, I should have this finished in no time.” She turned back to the battle just in time as Sannan attacked with his rasetsu powers growling, “You must face justice for nearly destroying all of my hard work.” He began to strike at her with quicker, more precise blows, but she was still able to parry his attacks. “You destroyed something so valuable to the Shogunate, I cannot forgive you.” 

“Valuable to the Shogunate? You don’t know how valuable it is to me,” She snapped while fiercely pushing him back, landing a severe slash to his chest. “You have no idea where it came from, or how many were sacrificed in it’s creation. Your arrogance insults me to the core.” Her eyes flashed golden as the rage built up inside her, “The Ochimizu doesn’t belong to you, or Kōdō. None of you are worthy of it’s power.”

“In fact you aren’t even worthy enough for me to show you my true form,” she said as her eyes returned back to normal. She landed several quick strikes to the man with glasses, making sure to injure him in a way that wouldn’t immediately heal. “Heisuke, take him back and heed my warning…never use the Ochimizu again,” Miyuki ordered, “Now get out of here before I change my mind.”

As Heisuke retreated with Sannan, Miyuki turned back to Shiranui. She let out a sigh and said, “Sorry that you had to see me like that, he just really pissed me off.” With a smile she said, “It’s nice to see you again, so what is it that seems to be bothering you?” She then tilted her head and said pointed, “Umm…Who the hell is that guy?”

“Eh that’s no problem. By the way, you look nice when you smile like that.”  He was about to pull her aside to talk when she asked who was behind him, and instantly his shoulders dropped. “He’s part of the reason why I wanted to talk to you.” Shiranui sighed. Not only had he not gotten to her fast enough, but now Amagiri saw him talking with the demon Kazama was after. This wasn't going to end well.

“I’m Amagiri Kyuju, allied with the demon clan of the west,” Amagiri bowed slightly in front of Miyuki, “Kazama-sama wishes to meet you”    
  
Miyuki gave a slight bow back to mimic his politeness, but that was it. “So Kazama has sent you to summon me,” she repeated, “I suppose this means I must have gained his attention with my latest actions.” He may be aligned with Shiranui, but Miyuki had to be cautious with her next move, after all she didn’t want to make things troublesome for her friend. “You seem to be an honorable demon Amagiri,” she said, “So I will make you an offer.” She shot a glance over at Shiranui and smiled again; not only because he liked it, but also to show that Miyuki was fine with what she was about to do.

“I will come with you and meet this Kazama at my own free will,” Miyuki said, “However in return you will not say anything to your leader about Shiranui and I being...acquaintances. He only kept my secret because he did not want to break his promise.” She looked at him seriously and stated, “If you deny my offer I’m afraid I will be forced to take you on in combat. Despite my appearance I am a very formidable opponent.” Miyuki hoped that he would accept her offer. They had been through too much together over the past few months, she wasn’t going to let Shiranui get into any further trouble on her account. She looked over and smiled at him again softly, since he liked how she looked when she did so.

When Miyuki smiled at him again and Shiranui gulped slightly. He knew the repercussions if Kazama found out that he knew about her and that she was in his territory. However he couldn’t believe what she did next. She allied herself with him and then put her own neck on the line, offering to face Kazama if Amagiri would keep quiet. What was she doing, and why? Was it because he helped her that night?

Amagiri spoke up again. “I shall accept your offer, Follow me.”

Miyuki nodded and let Amagiri lead the way, following through with her offer to come along willingly. She looked over at Shiranui who looked a mix of shocked and uncomfortable. “You saved me last time,” she whispered quietly, “I figured I could at least spare you from getting an earful from Kazama.” With a wink she joked, “besides, I would hate to have to fight against you after everything we’ve been through.”

When they arrived Miyuki’s face remained serious and stoic as Kazama walked right up to her, standing toe to toe. “I’m Kazama Chikage,” he said in his normal low voice, “another female demon? How interesting.” Miyuki stared into his cold, red eyes saying nothing. “Nameless demon, tell me who you are, and why you’re in my territory.”

“I am just a wandering ronin named Miyuki, nothing more,” she said calmly, “I have no intentions of interfering with you, or your territory Kazama.” Miyuki came quietly for Shiranui’s sake, but she was not going to let this clan head even remotely intimidate her. Kazama continued to glare at her as if he was looking for something in her eyes. “Oh but you have interfered. The Ochimizu, what is your interest in it?”

“Interest? I just want it destroyed,” Miyuki replied still refusing to move an inch, “There is no need for this sacrilege of false demons to continue any longer.” Their standoff continued in silence for a moment, and that’s when he reached up and took ahold of her chin. “That’s a nice story, but who are you really? What is your clan’s name?” he said while looking her over and shifting her head left to right, “It’s in your best interest to tell me the truth, woman.”

“I told you my name is Miyuki,” she repeated before roughly grabbing his hand and removing it, “…and it’s in your best interest to never touch me again, Kazama Chikage.” Her defiance angered him, and he reacted by bringing his blade to her throat. “You will not speak to me that way ever again woman,” he sneered, “I am the head of the western Oni, a lowlife like yourself should show more respect.” She felt the sharp blade shallowly cut her skin as he pressed it in but it didn’t phase her. “On your knees, now,” he ordered, “Perhaps if you beg for my forgiveness I will spare you’re pathetic little life.”

“No,” Miyuki said as she looked straight into his eyes, “You should apologize to me, then maybe I’ll spare yours.”

Shiranui tried to hide his grimace when Kazama drew his sword. This wasn’t going the way he liked but he couldn’t step in now, not after Miyuki had talked Amagiri into accepting her offer of keeping her alliance with him a secret. Wasn’t there any way?

“Kazama,” Amagiri cut in while bowing politely, “This woman hasn’t done anything to you other than speak up to you. We should not turn a sword on one of our own without a valid reason.”

For once it was a good thing that Amagiri was so loyal and reasonable. Kazama furrowed his eyebrows, but realized that he was right and slowly shoved his sword back into his scabbard.   
  
“You’re retainer Amagiri is a wise man,” Miyuki said as she bowed her head slightly towards him in thanks. “Now then Kazama,” she said in a more polite tone this time, “I came here at my own will, without hesitation or the intent to draw my blade to prove I am not a threat to your clan.”

“I am not a fool, so I will not ask you to back down on extinguishing the rasetsu and the demon who created it,” Miyuki said, “and I hope you are not a fool to think I would work under you either.” Her ‘defiance’ should have spoken volumes to even a hothead like him. “Just like you I have my own duties to fulfill.”

“You’re own duties…,” he repeated, “Then answer me this, what clan are you allied with? You have to be with the east since I know nothing about you.” Miyuki shook her head and said, “One that doesn’t exist, as I said before I am a lone ronin, there is no clan to align with.”

“Hmmmm,” Kazama said while once again looking at her oddly, “You speak too eloquently to be just a ronin.” He stepped forward once more, hovering in her personal space. “I will find out if you are lying to me, Miyuki,” Kazama said, “and if you are, then expect to face the end of my sword.” She was not telling Kazama a lie, her clan was wiped out of existence. He just didn’t need to know the finer details.

He turned around and waved his hand lazily, “I have nothing further to ask this woman, escort her away before I change my mind.” He walked past Amagiri and Shiranui muttering, “I have no use for another defiant female demon.”

“I’ll handle this,” Shiranui said calmly as he grasped her wrist. “Hey, I thought I said before don’t touch me,” she protested as he dragged her away in order to keep up the act. When they were clear Miyuki didn’t have a chance to let out a sigh of relief before Shiranui started to talk at a rapid rate. There was no way she would be able to get a word in, so she just listened. 

“Even though you’re alive that couldn’t have gone any worse. We’re lucky that Amagiri stepped in to stop him. Now that he’s convinced you’re not telling him everything he’ll order us to find out more about you.”

“I’m not worried about what happens to myself when he finds out, but you...” Shiranui continued pausing for a moment, “We’re going to have to lay low, It’s over with our secret meetings. I can’t risk him finding out anything else, or risk him finding out where you are and what you’re doing. Dammit, I probably can’t even send you a letter because that guy just sees everything.” He lowered his voice and said, “I’d never forgive myself if something happened to you, this is the only way I can protect you from him Miyuki.”

Miyuki suddenly stopped walking and snapped her arm away, “do you think I’m some weak, pathetic woman that needs to be protected by someone else?” She knew her tone was harsh, but she couldn’t help but feel a mix of boiling anger, insultment, and hurt building inside her. Miyuki stood tall as she continued, “Have you forgotten that I have the blood of the first Oni in my veins? I outrank him in status and power; if he dared to try anything against me I’d strike him down in an instant.” 

“I thought by now you understood who I was,” she spoke, “but the way you’re talking says otherwise.” She couldn’t believe the way he was acting right now. They had shared so much together; she trusted him and thought they shared a common body. Was he really willing to toss that all aside because of some arrogant clan leader? The thought alone started to tear away at her soul, is this the punishment she deserved for opening herself to someone? 

“I may have risked everything tonight by willingly meeting Kazama, but I did it anyway for you,” she said, “If after that you still think we shouldn’t see each other again…then you aren’t the demon I thought you were.”

Miyuki turned around so that he couldn’t see the sadness in her face. “You can either face whatever lies ahead with me, or forget we ever met and go back to Kazama. Think about it before you make your choice.” She began to walk back towards Ikeda alone as she said, “You know how to find me, Shiranui.”

Seeing her eyes fill with sadness and the tone of her voice felt like a ragged knife twisting in his gut. Shiranui stood there speechless as she walked away, leaving him behind. He could understand now why she felt so hurt, but his problem was that he couldn’t understand /why/ he said everything he did. All he did was say whatever had crossed his mind without any real context, not realizing how the words would affect her.

Of course he knew that he didn’t need to protect her from Kazama, he’s seen her fight and knew how strong she was. However, at the same time he was still worried about her if Kazama found out her secrets. Miyuki didn’t know him like Shiranui did; Kazama was the type who would do anything to get what he wants. The possibility that he could ruin her chance for revenge, or worse try to make her his wife were enough to make him feel a bit scared; he didn’t want to lose her.

However with the way she left, Shiranui may have already lost her. He left her angry and broken. He wasn’t sure when or how he would find her, but he knew he that he had to talk to Miyuki again. He had to apologize for what he had said, even if he didn’t know why or how yet.


	6. Gomennasai

Miyuki had been focussing her attention on tracking down Kaoru. He led her straight to the truth; Kōdō had infiltrated the Satchō alliance and created an army of rasetsu. She sat at Shimibara drinking sake, while spying on Harada and Nagakura’s conversation hoping to overhear their battle plans. For some reason she couldn’t help but let her thoughts wander back to Shiranui. Was she too hard on him, did she scare him away? If he couldn't realize that he had wronged her then she certainly didn't need him around; or at least that was what she was trying to convince herself. Miyuki let out a sigh and poured another, trying to clear her mind. 

Shiranui had been sulking for the last week, still struggling with what to do about Miyuki. He tried desperately, but he just couldn’t get her off his mind. The images of her smile, and those hurt eyes were imprinted into his thoughts. He wasn’t a drinker, but that night he felt like he just needed an excuse to forget it all. It was though for a demon to get drunk, so he kept pouring drink after drink in the hopes that he could ease his mind for at least a little while. Fate however decided to be cruel once again as he heard a familiar sigh from next door. He paused, setting his glass down as he sensed her presence. Shiranui sat there for a few minutes, contemplating what to do. Should he rush over and apologize? Should he give her space and not acknowledge her presence? This is where he could really use Harada’s advice, women were so complicated.

He pulled together his nerve and said to himself in a loud enough voice that she could hear him through the thin walls, “If she wants to talk she can come to me, She's the one who left me behind after all.”

Miyuki almost spit out her sake when she heard the voice speak up next door. It was Shiranui. She swallowed the alcohol quickly and sat there stunned. Miyuki sat there and thought about his words, If she wants to talk. Of course _she_ wanted to talk, hadn’t she made herself clear last time? Men, were they always so oblivious? As much as she wanted to go over to him and set things straight, Miyuki was stubborn. Too stubborn for her own good. “He expects me to go to him? Ha! I told him before that he can come to me,” Miyuki said as she stood up and grabbed her sake, “But I’m not going to sit here and wait around for him to acknowledge that he was wrong.”

She stood up in a huff, grabbed her sake and deciding that she was going to make him realize that Miyuki Tsukuyomi didn’t need him. She opened the door to the room next door and playfully said, “Oh, I’m sorry this is the wrong room. I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

“Oi, you’re that demon girl,” Shinpachi said as he looked at her with surprise, “You’re not going to start trouble again are you?”

“Me, start trouble?” Miyuki pouted while she leaned against the door, “Can’t a lady just want a little company when she’s lonely?” She lifted her bottle of sake to show that she wasn’t there to start a fight. Harada smiled and said, “It’s a crime for a beautiful woman to be left alone.” He shifted and moved a small cushion next to him, “Come over here, you can sit next to me Himesama.”

"Arigatou Harada," she said with a grin she sat down next to him. She then poured herself another round, raising the cup to her lips. If he was going to play games so could she. Miyuki wasn’t sure why she wanted to make him feel jealous; perhaps it was to assert herself and show him what he could loose…or maybe it was payback for nearly making her cry that night. Either way she didn't protest when Harada put his arm around her shoulder and playfully smirked, "I suppose I still have a chance since you came here. Do you want me to show you how a man is supposed to treat a lady?"

Shiranui clearly heard her words as well as her steps when she left her room. With a small sigh he waited a few moments before following after her. He was ready to talk, but on the other hand he wasn’t. He didn’t know how to start. He doubted that Miyuki would listen to his excuses unless he properly apologized to her, and Shiranui wasn’t a man who was to get down on his knees. 

He was about to enter when he realized where she disappeared to; she went into the room with Harada and Nagakura. He listened as she acted as if he wasn’t there,and openly laughed and flirted with Harada. Company wasn’t her goal; she was trying to get some sort of reaction out of him...and it worked. Shiranui’s heart started beating a little faster in some kind of wrath as he worked up the nerve to talk to her. “Come out, I need to talk to you Miyuki about what happened last time.”

“Is that you Shiranui,” Sanosuke said with a furrowed brow, “somehow I sense that you are the reason himesama is drinking alone.” He turned to her and said, “He must really be in trouble if he’s standing outside and won’t come in.” Miyuki looked down at her sake and nodded, confirming his suspicions. She felt him pull her in close to whisper, “he sounds sincere you know, but if you want I can tell him to leave.” 

Miyuki shook her head and stood up, she didn’t want him to leave since he finally came to her. She took a large swig directly from the bottle of sake to calm her nerves, making Shinpachi’s jaw drop again. She bowed and set the bottle down saying, “excuse me for a moment.” As she opened the door to walk into the hall Harada yelled, “Yo, If you make her cry I won’t be able to hold back.”

Miyuki slid the door shut and looked up at Shiranui, “So, you want to talk now.” Her heart started to race as she tried to desperately keep a calm demeanor.

“I…” He hesitated and wondered what was wrong with him that he actually was going to try to apologize. “…I’m sorry about what I said. I think I was worried that you meeting Kazama could change our relationship.” Was this even the right word for it? He didn’t know how Miyuki would react; he only knew that their 'relationship’ already had changed. “I just didn’t want to lose you, so I panicked.”

“Baka,” Miyuki said with a sigh as she pointed her index finger into his chest, “It would only change if one of us let it.” She looked up at him and said, “I stood toe to toe with Kazama and didn’t flinch for one second. I was so angry because the way you were acting it made it seem like he managed to make throw up the white flag and surrender.” Miyuki looked down and said, “The only way I'll let you worry about me, or us, is if you promise to not let him, or anyone else take it away.”

"I'm a fighter Kyo, and I can only be with someone who fights just as hard as me." Miyuki had always been strong and stubborn, but since that night she was a mess mentally. She began to lose confidence in herself; thinking maybe she really wasn’t strong enough to face Kazama or Kōdō. But in actuality, she knew that she was strong enough, it was just that she no longer wanted to face what was ahead on her own. 

“Don’t make me say this again,” said Miyuki as she wrapped her arms around Shiranui’s waist and buried her face in his chest, “…now that I know what it’s like to not be alone, I don’t want you to ever leave.” She closed her eyes and whispered, “…because if you did, that’s the one thing in this world I wouldn’t be able to handle.”

Shiranui’s eyes widened when Miyuki wrapped her arms around him. She didn't want to be alone, and he didn't either. He put his hands on her shoulders and pulled her close, hugging her tightly. He was so close to losing her, and he wasn't going to let Miyuki slip through his fingers again. “I want to stay with you,” he whispered into her ear, “I promise I’ll always fight with you, and for you. And I promise that I won’t ever leave you again.”

Miyuki felt the warmth of his arms, and the tickle of his breath in her ear. Her heart fluttered, and she such happiness inside as she let herself melt. “I promise to do the same,” she said back. This feeling that she had inside was worth protecting and fighting for, she finally understood now what it was to find that one person.

The door slid open and Harada said, “Well Shiranui seems our fight is over, you were able to disarm her.” He smirked, “but remember, if you ever break himesama’s heart I’ll swoop right in and steal her from ya.” Miyuki laughed and said “Steal me away? That will never happen Harada, after all demon’s _never_ break their promises.”

A drunk Nagakura stuck his head out and pouted, “even demons are falling in love, why can’t I? It’s like I’m not even an option for the ladies…am I just a side piece or something?” Harada laughed and said to his friend, “come on Shinpachi, I’ll pour you another. We should leave these two alone anyway.” While Miyuki turned her attention back to Shiranui, Sano mouthed to the demon, “this is when you kiss her.” With a wink he dragged his friend back into their room and slid the door shut.

“Hey, are you blushing Kyo,” Miyuki said calling him by his first name, “…or can you just not handle your sake?”

“N-no!” He immediately felt his face heat up even more. “It’s not the sake… I just…” What Harada had just told him was just… too confusing and embarrassing. There was no way he would do something humiliating like that! On the other hand, it didn’t sound too bad. He hesitated briefly, then leaned down, and his lips slightly, almost shyly brushed Miyuki’s.

Wait, why was he blushing then? All Harada said was that they would leave them alone. Then as she felt him softly touch her lips with his she had her answer. Now it was her turn to let her cheeks flush. She stayed still, letting his lips continue to hover there. This was unknown territory for her, but what she did next felt completely natural. Miyuki’s hand reached up and her fingers grazed his jawline before taking hold of the back of his neck. She gently pushed forward, and this time it was her lips touching his. With her eyes closed she remained there for what felt like an eternity before slowly pulling away. “I like this,” she said while embracing him even tighter than before, “…you can kiss me whenever you want to.”

This burning feeling inside her heart was intoxicating, all Miyuki wanted right now was just to be with him. He certainly did disarm her, and for once in her life she felt perfectly fine with him leaving her defenseless. Trust. Love. Perhaps they were both the same thing. “Let’s get out of here,” she said as her head nuzzled against his chest.   
  
He nodded and let go, but only so he could then take her hand and gently pull her towards the exit. There was this strange feeling of warmth and happiness inside him; Love. Takasugi had explained it to him once. “If you’re in love, your heart beats faster if you only think about the person you’re in love with. And you feel really warm and happy.” So he was in love; an unusual imagination, but he liked it. A small, honest smile appeared on his face.

Miyuki followed him with a spring in each step, and seeing the smile on his face made her feel even lighter. They jumped up on to the rooftop, letting the light of the moon guide the way. They were only a block away from Shimabara however when a presence appeared. "It appears we've been followed," Miyuki said as they both stopped in their tracks.

“Forgive my intrusion Shiranui, I will keep this visit short” Amagiri said while bowing momentarily, “Lord Kazama wanted me to inform you that we leave tomorrow night to meet up with the Satsuma and Choshu army.” Miyuki had known this was coming, but she wasn’t expecting it to happen so soon.

“Shiranui, I will inform Lord Kazama that I have fulfilled his request to notify you,” Amagiri bowed once more, “I will take my leave.” As he turned around and started to walk away he said, “If I were to see the Lady Miyuki, I would tell her leave before this city becomes a battlefield. The path to Edo smells of rasetsu.” He disappeared as quickly as he arrived, leaving both of them speechless for a moment.

“Tomorrow night…” He didn’t want to leave, not after what he had just promised. “…you could come with me. Or I could come with you. I mean, we just promised not to leave each other, didn’t we?”

Miyuki resisted her urge to sigh; war just had to happen right after their relationship changed into something more. Instead she smiled and placed her finger over his mouth to shush his words. “Come back to Ikeda with me, stay till the sun comes up.” Miyuki winked and said, “If you say yes I will let you sleep on the futon with me this time.” He didn't say another word or protest her request, instead he just followed her back to her room.  
  
“You know,” he sighed when they laid there next to each other staring at the the ceiling, “Kazama still thinks he can order me to do what he wants, but I’m gonna show him that he can’t.”

“Now you’re starting to sound like me,” Miyuki said as she rolled onto her side facing Shiranui. She was going to wait till the morning to talk about this, but perhaps it would be best to get this out of the way now. "Before I let you to come with me I need to tell you _everything_ ,” she said as her face grew serious. “If you haven’t figured it out yet, Kōdō is who I’m after,” Miyuki said, “The Ochimizu came from my clan's blood.” She explained that one by one, members in their village started disappearing. They were experimented on then slaughtered whenever he deemed them failures. “When he realized that only the blood from the direct line of Tsukuyomi-no-mikoto could help him achieve his goals, he turned other demons against us to attack our village.”  The memories were painful for her to speak about, but she continued on anyway.

“My parents sent me away, and took their own lives to ensure he wouldn’t get what he wanted,” she said as her hand gripped his shirt a little tighter, “One by one the group that helped me escape were either captured or killed...and soon I was the only one left.” In order to restore the memory of her clan she had to destroy all the rasetsu and kill Kōdō; it was the only way their souls would be able to rest peacefully. Miyuki closed her eyes saying, “This is my personal fight since they sacrificed everything for me, which is why I never wanted to involve anyone else.” She paused for a moment before finishing, “…but if _you_ want to come with me, I would make an exception.”

Hearing that story made him understand her desires for revenge. Not only had she lost everything, but others died in order to ensure that she lived on. “That’s… a huge sacrifice. But can I ask you something?" He hesitated a moment before he continued, "Your clan were descendants of the first Oni, so shouldn’t they have been much stronger than Kōdō?” Before she could get any wrong ideas, he added, “I think dying for something or someone you want to protect is a death is honorable, but if they defeated him wouldn't it would’ve made things so much easier. Back then and now.”

She nodded her head, and wasn't bothered by the question at all. “I was only a child back then, but I remember hearing that somehow their powers were weakened, rendering them as useless as an ordinary human," she explained, "My father was stubborn, he wouldn’t have given his life so easily without a reason,” Miyuki closed her eyes and remembered the look on his face when he sent her away. He didn’t look defeated, or even angry; instead he smiled and joked with her. The last thing he said was to ‘be a good girl and train hard, you’re my tiny warrior…I expect you to raise hell for me’.

Shiranui’s hand stroked Miyuki’s back gently, soothing her tension from the painful memories. “If you don’t mind, I want to come with you. Your happiness is more important to me than Kazama's. He’s just thinks he can order me around like some subordinate, but I will show him that I'm not.”

“I don’t mind at all.” Miyuki smiled as he said he would come with her, and when he said he'd show Kazama who was really in charge. She suddenly crawled on top of him, letting her face hover above his, “mmmm…I like it when you talk like this.” She lowered her lips onto his, showing how happy she was with his decision. “Now you’ve got me all excited,” she teased, ”I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep now.”  Miyuki leaned back in, this time letting her lips softly brush the side of his jaw. “This is going to be fun,” she whispered, “Let’s raise some hell, together.”

“Excited?” Shiranui repeated with the same playful, teasing tone. “You don’t have to sleep if you can’t, ya know.” With these words, he wrapped his arms around her neck to pull her close and kiss her. When they separated, he looked up to her and smirked, “Fun sounds good, but hell sounds even better. You have good ideas y'know!”

Miyuki knew when pulled her back in and kissed her that she wasn’t the only one excited. “I’m just full of good ideas,” she said while finally composing herself again, “In fact I have another one right now.” Miyuki’s hand reached up and untied the ribbon holding her long hair, making it fall down her back. She leaned into him once more and said, “Let’s stop talking, I want to get back to you kissing me.”

“You want me to kiss you? I suppose I could do that.” He smirked briefly and once again their lips met more passionately this time. “Do you want anything more?”

Her heart rate increased and she felt herself begin to tingle with excitement. Did she want more? Her body was telling her yes, or rather screaming it from the top of the mountains. She looked into his eyes and said while her index finger traced the lines on his stomach, “I want more, I want all of you…don’t make me beg for it.”

“You don’t want to beg for it? But isn’t that the fun part?” he pouted playfully while his hands were tracing towards the hem of her top to shove it upwards slowly. “Enjoy it, then.” His fingers gently traced over her stomach before wandering upwards and tenderly starting to massage her breasts. He pulled her into another kiss and couldn’t get enough of this right now. “Are you okay with that?” he whispered teasingly while his mouth wandered further down, taking in one of her nipples and sucking on it, gently biting her and licking over the same place like an apology right after that.

Her lips quivered as he teased her slowly, each calculated movement and flicker of his tongue made a moan escape her lips. Miyuki’s breath grew heavier as her hips ground into his, longing for more. She found herself quickly tugging his shirt off as well. “My turn,” she whispered into his ear. Her lips slowly moved from his jaw to the nape of his neck, then down his muscular chest all the way to the top of his hips. Her warm breath hovered over his crotch, and she could feel him throbbing beneath his clothes. This would teach him to tease her like that. She slithered back up and grabbed ahold of the back of his head, then continued to feverishly kiss him. As he sat up and grasped the small of her back with one hand, Miyuki loosened the knot on her hakama and tossed the obi aside.

His mind felt so clouded, and he couldn’t really think anything reasonable, but it didn’t matter. Shiranui moved her two her back in a quick motion before he shoved Miyuki’s hakama down. Instinct took over his hands as they wandered all over her body sending her into a frenzy. He slowly tossed away his own trousers while touching Miyuki in places of which he had never dreamed to.

She looked up and him with an animal-like gaze and said, “Please…” Her hands tugged at his waist as she gave in and said, “I want you…now…please.”

“Look at this,” he whispered with an amused voice, “you’re really enjoying this, huh?” And with these words, he carefully let two fingers slide into her, moving them carefully to prepare her while kissing her passionately.

Normally Miyuki would be able to let a witty response roll off her tongue, but as she felt his fingers slide inside her all she could do was once again let out a moan in between kisses. How could one person have this much power over her? Since she couldn’t find the words to say she let her body do the talking. As they kissed her tongue intertwined with his, her hands gripped his lower back, and her steady breathing turned into a pant. Her body began to shudder as an intense feeling overcame her. The spot between her legs tingled with excitement as she pulled his rock hard body into hers. He was driving her mad with greed, and she needed him now. Her eyes gazed into his pleading for him to enter.

Shiranui fought the urge to just take her forcefully, but when he saw Miyuki’s pleading glance he knew he didn’t need to wait any longer. He pulled back his fingers, ignoring her disappointed moan, and settled himself in front of her before slowly entering. A low gasp escaped his lips when he felt how hot and tight she was around him, and then he thrusted into her deeply, slowly increasing his pace.  
  
Miyuki forgot to breathe for a moment as her eyes rolled back into her head. Her legs shuddered for a moment, but as the rhythm built up her legs clamped around his tighter. Her hips moved in sync with his, and her back arched more with each thrust. She couldn’t help it as her moans grew louder, and her fingernails began to dig into the skin on his back. As her muscled grew tighter she became overcome with a feeling of ecstasy that was about to burst. “Kyo,” she mustered out as her toes began to curl, “oohh, don’t stop.” Her body was so sensitive by now that just the slightest movement of his fingers or breathe sent her into a frenzy. As her legs began to quiver, in order to muffle an intense scream Miyuki gently bit down on his shoulder.

He felt himself getting closer and closer to the end with how tense her muscles were growing. He wanted to stop and make her wait, but once she bit into his shoulder her couldn't resist any longer. He felt her intense orgasm, and came a moment later as he moaned her name. 

Gasping in exhaustion, he pulled back collapsed onto the futon next to her. “This was… too good,” he mumbled, his voice showing how tired he was. “We need to do that again. Not now though, unless you want to be the one doing everything while I get to lay down and enjoy.” A weak sarcastic laugh made its way out of his mouth.

When he collapsed beside her she was able to finally catch her breath. She smiled as he commented that it was too good, and they could do it again. Miyuki forced herself to roll to her side, resting her head on his chest again. She could feel his rapid heartbeat start to slow as she laughed, “Next time I’ll do the hard work, but now? My body feels like jelly.” She snuggled up next to him and said with a laugh, “I think neither of us are going to have a problem sleeping now.” Miyuki closed her eyes and let her fingers slowly circle his chest. Her lips had a permanent soft smile as her breathing slowed. She could get used to this feeling of giving herself to someone else. “I love you,” she whispered. 

He smiled and started stroking her back softly as he came down from his high. “I love you too,” he whispered into her ear and enjoying her warmth as much as she was enjoying his before they both fell asleep.


	7. Sunrise

Yawning, Shiranui stretched out his arms and sat up slowly. "Wait, why am I... - ah, right." He looked down at the woman sleeping naked next to him, letting a smirk form on his lips. He was still in surprise at how things between them turned out, but for a change it was a pleasant twist of fate. Shiranui softly touched her shoulder, "Yo Miyuki, we should get up." When she didn't react, he leaned in and kissed her tenderly.

“Hmmmm,” she sleepily muttered as he tried to wake her with a kiss, ”but I’m comfy right here.” Miyuki let out a tiny yawn as her legs stretched like a cat. Her eyes reluctantly opened as she realized the position of the sun shining through her single window. “It’s afternoon already?” she said with a pout, “ugggggh…ok I’ll get up then.” Tonight was when the next step of their journey would begin, and she would have never envisioned herself traveling with him by her side. It was comforting with so many unknowns ahead of them. She kissed him back and slid off the futon, quickly getting dressed.

She combed her hair back into a slick ponytail, tying it up with string. “So what’s your plan with Kazama,” she asked while gathering the small amount of supplies she had into a bag. “..I guess what I’m asking is if I should take a little time to sharpen my Katana before we leave,” she joked with a wink.

“I’ll just go tell him that I won’t accompany him. He’ll either have to accept that, or else we’ll make him.” He cocked his head slightly, a grin on his lips. He walked up behind her and took ahold of her hips, “but before we leave Let’s get something for breakfast.” His lips brushed her neck as she teased, "If you wanted breakfast then why did I bother putting my clothes back on? Oh, you meant _actual_ breakfast." He let out a small laugh and said, "I did...but maybe we don't have to leave _quite_ yet."

~

Once they gathered supplies and ate they made their way to Kazama's hideout. Miyuki followed Shiranui through the building's back entrance and climbed the stairs to his room. She felt the sneer in his voice as he said, “You’re back early, Shiranui.”

“Do you have a problem with it? I’m not gonna stay for long, anyways." He spun his gun around his finger lazily, "I’m just here to tell you that I’m not coming with you, that's it. Let’s go, Miyuki.” They both turned around to head out when Kazama spoke up.

“In case you have forgotten, you work for me Shiranui,” his garnet red eyes shot over to stare at her, “and why did you bring her here.” He took two steps forward glaring at them both, and Miyuki’s hand instinctively hovered over the hilt of her sword. “I told you to not get in my way woman,” he growled, “Now you’re taking something from me.”

“Didn’t you listen to what Kyo just said,” She playfully commented while leaning against Shiranui’s shoulder, “I didn’t steal him away Kazama, he chose to come with me.” Miyuki planted a kiss on the side of his cheek, while keeping a watchful eye on Kazama. She had to admit after her last enoucnter with him, it felt really good to ruffle his feathers.

“This woman is a worthless devil Shiranui,” Kazama growled intensely, “You committed yourself to the Satcho Alliance, so you will follow my orders.”

Miyuki raised an eyebrow and said, “I can’t tell if he’s just mad or jealous.” Shiranui shrugged and replied, “Probably both.” He turned back to Kazama and assertively spoke, “Listen Kazama, if she was taking me from you I wouldn’t be the one coming to you and telling you that I’m leaving voluntarily. This was my own choice."

Kazama stared at him stunned; he had never talked like this before. This she-devil had changed him, and in his opinion not for the better. “I won’t let you go that easily. Especially not since this woman is interfering despite my warning before.”

“Kazama,” Shiranui growled. His hand moved to grab his gun and point it forward, threatening the blonde demon. “I won’t let you hurt Miyuki, just so you know. This is between us so If you want to fight someone, fight me.”

The demon sneered back and slowly drew his Katana, his anger reaching a point of no return as he was challenged. “What is so special about this woman that you would choose to betray me,” He growled while he motioned Amagiri to come forward. “If you dare to defy me, to threaten to raise your gun at me, there must me some reason behind it.“ He slowly unsheathed a quarter of his blade as he said, “I want to know why.”  
  
"Because I have someone now that I want to be with, to protect," Shiranui replied while taking the safety off his gun, "We're leaving whether you like it or not. I didn't want to fight you, but if you are so damn stubborn to accept my choice then so be it!" He stood there and never once blinked as he started to step back twoards the window. Miyuki followed his lead and did the same with her Katana at the ready. 

He suddenly moved forward, that was until Amagiri’s arm shot out to block him from taking a step more. “Kazama, you can’t force him to stay,” he spoke, “We should not be fighting fellow demons, especially when you have an obligation to meet with the Satsuma on the front lines.” Once again he scowled with defeat, gritting his teeth as he backed down.

Miyuki took that as the signal to get the hell out of there and slipped outside. Once they were a few blocks away she joked, “That went well…remind me to thank Amagiri next time.” In her mind she wondered if Kazama would ever change; with as arrogant as he was, probably not. As the sun was starting to set she smiled and decided to focus on what was ahead. “So, are you ready to go hunt some Rasetsu,” Miyuki asked, “From the information I gathered he’s got almost a whole army ready to deploy. They shouldn’t be too hard to find.”

“A whole army? Sounds like fun. But we won’t be the only ones hunting them; the Shinsengumi seems pretty fond of stopping Kōdō too. I don’t think they want to kill him, but at least in hunting down his armies they’ll probably make an appearance.”Miyuki nodded, “Well they have the Yukimura girl with them…and a few furies of their own so that wouldn’t surprise me.” She smiled and winked, “I guess when they do show up, we’ll just have to teach them how it’s done.” With her supply bag slung over her back she motioned towards the edge of town, “Let’s get going, It’s quite a long way to Edo.”

They traveled through most of the night and eventually decided to stop for the evening. Miyuki began to sharpen her katana by the light of the fire. She looked over at Shiranui who was also cleaning his revolver. She walked over and sat beside him, almost fascinated with the mechanical nature of the weapon. “I’ve trained with different swords, spears, and knives before choosing a Katana,” she said, “Why did you decide on a gun? How different is it? I mean isn’t there a risk since you need to load it after so many shots?”  
  
“There is a certain risk but only if I’m out of bullets,” Shiranui replied. “I just couldn’t be happy with swords and that stuff. It felt too heavy considering how much I move when I’m fighting. I stumbled across this gun about… uh… two? Maybe three years ago after a battle. I picked it up from a dead human and experimented with it… I shot my own hand in this progress…”

He looked down on his left hand with a smirk. “It hurt. It really did. But I understood that this is probably the perfect weapon for me - light, but precise and with a high ability to kill. I got along with it better than with any other weapon and by now, I’m pretty fast at loading it even during a battle.” Shiranui leaned back and looked up to the moon. “For some things western inventions are good. For example this gun… I mean, it’s exactly the same one I picked up three years ago and it doesn’t have a single scratch.”

Miyuki winced at the thought of him accidentally shooting his own hand, remembering what it felt like to get shot. She knew what he meant by other weapons being heavy and limiting movement, It took her years to find the right one. “Growing up north of Sendai everything was very traditional. Hell it took me years to get the old men to finally teach me how to use a sword rather than a Naginata,” She said remembering their lectures about women and battle. “Maybe that’s why western advances fascinate me so much,” Miyuki said with a laugh, “Even something as simple as a button seemed so mind blowing.”

“Sometime when this is all over you should teach me how to use it,” she grinned, “…though without the shooting my own hand part.”

“I only shot my own hand because I tried to look at every single part of it. You could say I took its innards out, and during the process I accidentally pulled the trigger,” He laughed. “Since I've been on my own for a long time I had nobody to teach me, so I just tried everything I could. Weapons, food, I even hung around every type of human imaginable. I learned a lot, including that most people weren't to be trusted." He looked down at his gun and continued, "But after all that travel I wanted some sense of normalcy, I guess that’s the reason why I allied myself with Kazama for a while.”

Miyuki found herself instinctively leaning into his shoulder as he spoke. Shiranui seemed to have traveled a lot, never staying in the same place for too long. She understood where he was coming from though. He experienced so many different things and people, but never quite found that one place that felt like home. “Somehow I don’t think that stability was really your thing,” she said with a small smile, “you don’t like boring, repudiative experiences.” Miyuki continued,” …I guess that’s what makes me more interesting than Kazama.” She playfully tackled him to the ground and kissed him sweetly. “See, you just never know what will happen when I’m around,” she joked, “Pandemonium is my middle name…so I hope you’ll get used to dealing with the unexpected.”

“Oh, that’s fine by me,” he smirked, “as you said correctly, stability doesn’t really suit me after all. I got quite board with it, which is why I ended up visiting Harada. But I highly doubt that my days will be boring when I’m with you.” Once he finished he kissed her back, holding her neck in place as he took her breathe away. 

She was about to say something when the sound of cannon fire erupted from some distance away, causing her to instinctively sit up. “Ahhh,” she squealed covering her ears, “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that.” Miyuki looked at Shiranui and said “well I guess that means war has broken out.” It still sounded so close though, she thought they had covered some distance and that the battle was taking place at Fushimi. “It sounds so close,” she said, “Are they normally that loud?”

“They’re louder if you stand directly next to one.” Despite his knowledge about guns, he wasn’t familiar with everything that had been invented in the west and since he hadn’t been with the Choushu when they had gotten their cannons, he didn’t really know much about cannons yet. “I don’t think we’re that close to Fushimi. We travelled pretty far after all. But by the sounds of it I doubt the battle will last too long. What do you think?”

Miyuki nodded agreeing that it would likely be over soon. With firepower like that she doubted that the Shogun would last very long in that battle. The canon fire continued in the distance, and Miyuki had a feeling it would last most of the day. After putting her sharpening tools away she sat back down by the small fire, leaning up against Shiranui. “I’m going to try and get some rest,” she said before closing her eyes, “I should only need an hour or two then we can get moving again.”

Shiranui nodded and left a kiss on her forehead as she quickly fell asleep. He knew that he should probably rest as well, but he wanted to watch over her, just for a little while longer.

 


	8. Blood Lust

Miyuki spied from the brush of the forest the rasetsu army moving slowly in the darkness. She felt bile rise in her throat as she watched them feed on the bodies of dead soldiers. "Disgusting." Kōdō didn't appear to be with them which was a letdown, but Miyuki knew that wouldn't stop her from what needed to be done. She looked over at Shiranui and nodded, it was time to send these furies to hell.

“Let’s get started, then,” Shiranui smirked at her, nodding in agreement. He adjusted his gun and aimed carefully for the heart of the first Rasetsu and shot. “If you watch my back, I’ll watch yours. How’s that sound?”

“Perfect,” she grinned as she drew her Katana. Finally after all that traveling and tracking the fun would begin. Miyuki leapt from the side of the road taking out the first in her path with ease. She mercilessly fought through the crowd in front of her, leaving a trail of bodies at her feet. 

Just as she started to break through the first group of swordsman, next came the rifleman. She dodged the first few rounds fired at her, using the enemies in front of her as almost a shield. “I need a distraction,” she yelled back to Shiranui as a plan formed in her head, “Can you hold them back for a bit?”

“Of course I can,” he replied, reloading his gun and shooting another Rasetsu, “What’s your plan?” He killed one Rasetsu after another, but there didn’t seem to be an end of them. “It’d better be a good one or I’ll be out of bullets soon…”

“Just watch and see,” she winked while jumping across the road into the woods. Miyuki quickly closed her eyes and concentrated all her energy. As the immense power inside her built up her appearance slowly morphed. Her eyes turned golden as her black hair faded to silver. Two long, silver horns erupted from her forehead, and blue tribal markings representing the phases of the moon ran down the side of her face, along her collarbone, and all the way down her arms.  “Did you miss me,” she called out from a tree above the battle. There was a silver aura around her as she quickly moved like the wind, jumping down from above. She landed behind the line of riflemen, slashing them all so quickly that they never knew she was coming. All that was left was a pile of bodies, tossed to the ground like rag dolls.

With them taken out all that was left were the remaining swordsman and the rear guard wielding spears. With a demonic grin she took her finger and wiped the blood off her blade. “And that is how a true demon of the Tsukuyomi clan fights,” She said to Shiranui, “Now, let’s clean up the rest of this mess.” What she didn’t realize however was that with each rasetsu she cut down, the more her desire to keep killing grew. 

Shiranui nodded in amazement he had barely seen someone fight in such precise way, let alone as quickly as her. In fact he had never seen a demon fight that way either; was this her clan’s power? He looked over at her and realized though that her eyes kept flickering between gold and red. “Miyuki, maybe you should slow down for a while,” he said worriedly. 

“I’m fine, really” she said feeling her rage subside for a moment, “This will be over in no time.” She smiled and then turned her focus back to the fight. Miyuki made her way through the soldiers quickly, growing bored of how easy they were to defeat. “Isn’t there anyone out there who can actually challenge me,” she muttered as the commander ordered a retreat.

“Oh no, I am not letting any of you get away,” she snarled while working her way through the rear guard, “I want Kōdō to have nothing left…NOTHING.” Her blood boiled over and her eyes went solid red as if she was a raging animal.

Her sword slashed through more viciously, not caring as her enemy’s blood dripped from her face and limbs. As she killed the last one she pulled her sword out and turned to Shiranui, “we must track down the ones that escaped.”   
  
Miyuki looked down at her sword that no longer glimmered, instead it was stained red with blood. For a moment she thought it looked more beautiful than before. Wait, that wasn’t right, why was she so fascinated with the blood?

She closed her eyes for a moment to compose herself, and that’s when she heard a voice inside her. “Blood, Not enough blood has been sacrificed to appease the Shinigami, head of the Tsukuyomi, I need more blood.” Her eyes opened and she repeated, “Not enough blood has been sacrificed.” The crimson color meant power, strength, and for some reason she wanted to see more of it. 

Shiranui was still skeptical if she really was fine when her eyes morphed permanently red. It was the same color eyes that the rasetsu had, did this mean that she had gone into some sort of blood lust? “Hey, you’ve done enough,” he said while he followed her through the woods, pulling the trigger of his gun every time he saw a Rasetsu. “You can let me help you, you know.”

His voice snapped her out of her daze as she said, “Huh, I’m fine.” She looked back and saw the path of destruction in her wake and laughed, “Sorry, I’ve been greedy. I need to learn to share.” For a few moments she felt fine, but then as Shiranuai shot another rasetsu the urges from before came back...and stronger than ever.

She found her mind filled with that voice in her head repeating “more blood, blood must be sacrificed.” Miyuki glared once again at her blade staring at the blood that was now caking on. She felt a strong desire brewing inside her, and did not like it at all.

Miyuki closed her eyes and tried to calm herself down, but the demon inside of her was strong. “No…I can’t give into these thoughts,” she said while lodging her Katana straight into the ground, “ARGH, I don’t know what’s happening but get out of my head.” She tried desperately to release herself from this form, but she couldn’t. It clung onto her too tightly, which has never happened before. She had to stop it now, before she let the demon inside do something that she’d regret.

Miyuki used all her strength to hold back as her eyes returned to gold, “I need time to get back under control. Please, I don’t want to hurt you…Run, now.” She stared at him intensely, “You can come back later, please leave.” Miyuki fell to her knees and pounded the ground with her fist as she tried to fight the urges inside her. Her eyes flashed between gold and crimson as she wondered why it was taking him so long to leave.

“How could I leave you alone like this,” he growled and shook his head, “Tell me what I can do to calm you down and I’ll do it. But I won’t leave. I’m not a person who runs when it gets a little more dangerous; you should know that.” He was worried about her when he sensed the overwhelming struggle she was enduring inside. Shiranui didn’t care if he get injured in the process, all he cared about was getting her back to her normal self.

Miyuki heard his voice and grew more frustrated by the moment as he refused to go. How was she supposed to calm down if she had to worry about what she could do to him? “Show him why he has to leave” the voice said, “Show him what power you have.” Before she knew what was happening her body reacted on it’s own. Her hands grabbed ahold of him and she dashed forward at an amazing speed, driving him right into the trunk of a tree. A devious smirk formed on her face as she heard the crackle of bones from the force of the impact. “I told you to leave,” she snarled as her left hand gripped his neck.

_ “Good, now give into the rage and finish him.” _

Miyuki pulled out her short sword with her free hand, placing it flat along the base of his neck. Her eyes looked down at the unused blade, and in it’s reflection she saw herself. Blood red eyes, a face filled with rage. “No, This isn’t me,” she whispered, “this isn’t who I am…is it?” She looked like a monster, no, she had become a monster.

He gasped in shock when she pushed his back against the tree hard. “Mi-Miyuki!” He struggled, tried to free himself from her grip, but it was as hard and relentless as iron. Then, he felt cold metal on his neck, sliding along his skin hard enough to draw a little blood.

As her concentration drifted to the sight of herself in the blade Miyuki’s grip momentarily loosened for a few seconds, and Shiranui immediately freed himself. and grabbed her by her wrists, staring into her eyes. “This isn’t you, Miyuki. I don’t know what this is, but cut it out! I know you can defeat it, you’re too strong to give into this!” He had to calm her down before she went on a rampage like the Shinsengumi’s furies. He didn’t want to have to hurt her, but he would if it came to that.

Miyuki stepped back when he broke free, but still managed to hold onto her short sword as he held her wrists. Shiranui was staring straight into her soul as he spoke. His eyes, the way he looked at her was drowning out the voice in her head. “Defeat it…” she said, “I can defeat it?”

She looked down for a moment and said, “…you’re bleeding, did I do this?” Her eyes rose back up and she knew the answer instantly. The feeling of anger and rage were focussed back at herself. How could she let herself loose control and do something like that? She would never want to hurt him, she loved him.

Her eyes glassed over and she dropped the sword and her eyes faded back to gold. “I’m so sorry,” Miyuki said while falling into him and grasping him tightly, “I don’t know what happened, I never lost control like that before.” She closed her eyes as the demon form began to fade away and cried, “I’m so sorry.”

Shiranui sighed in relief when he saw her demon form fade away, and he pulled her close. “It’s fine; it’s only a scratch. Don’t cry, that doesn’t suit you.” Her tears ran down his chest, warm and wet, and he started to gently massage her back in order to help her calm down. “Nothing bad happened, right? Everyone loses control sometimes. I don’t know what this was, but it’s over now.” He laid one hand under her chin and pushed her head up so he could kiss her tenderly. “It’s okay. Don’t worry anymore.”

Her emotions were wild and still out of control, but at least the thoughts of rage had faded along with her demon form. Miyuki was so confused as to what just happened, but as he held her close she felt herself finally start to settle down. It wasn’t until his lips kissed hers that she finally was able to stop crying.

Miyuki nodded softly, but decided to just stay right where she was. “It’s hard not to worry though,” she spoke, “I’ve used that form many times before and nothing like that ever happened.” Miyuki motioned towards the piles of dead bodies, “It was almost like I had become one of them.”

“That’s because they are just like you,” spoke Kaoru as he jumped down from his perch, “Kōdō was right, you were worth keeping an eye on; girl of the Tsukuyomi.” Miyuki looked shell shocked as she realized what they had done. They purposely set up this battle to watch her, that’s why she suddenly acquired the information in Kyoto.

“Kōdō set this up didn’t he,” Miyuki yelled, “This isn’t even the main army is it?” Kaoru laughed and said, “Yes, too bad you figured it out too late. Tōsama is with the first part of newly improved force, heading straight towards the Shinsengumi to retrieve my sister.”

“You should see the look on your faces. Soon everyone will realize that Kōdō will always outmaneuver whatever stands in his way.” Miyuki stood there with her fists clenched, trying to suppress her feelings of anger and embarrassment. How was he always several steps ahead of her? She thought she had been careful and calculated each move, but she was still outsmarted.

Kaoru looked at Shiranui and continued, “women are trouble you know, you should have stayed with Kazama.” He laughed and whistled for more furies to appear as he stepped back. 

“Don’t let it get to you. Can you watch my back?” Shiranui growled and pulled the trigger to shoot Kaoru.  “Just what the hell is wrong with you and Kōdō?! Why are you relying on the furies to rebuild your stupid clan? All they do-” he leapt forward towards Kaoru and dodged the boy’s strike, “-is kill and destroy! And just so you know...” He shot another bullet and managed to hit Kaoru’s hand, “I don’t regret having left Kazama. No matter how troublesome some women may be, Miyuki isn’t!”

Kaoru laughed, “because killing and destroying is what he needs them to do. Without humans demons will be free to control Japan.” He hissed as the bullet lodged in his hand, “Oh you will regret it, because now you’re added to the list to be destroyed.” He jumped back several feet and said, “We’ll make you both regret having interfered with us, You’ll see!” Kaoru made his escape, using the furies to keep them both occupied.

“Kyo, left rear,” Miyuki shouted as one lunged straight for him. She knew he’d have more than enough time to stop that one as she focused on the remaining few. Not wanting to risk drawing any further blood herself, Miyuki took to disarming them with her bare hands, letting Shiranui finish them off.

“Damn, I really want to kill him right now.  _ ‘Added to the list to be destroyed’ _ my ass, he’s just a psychotic bastard who thinks he could force us down onto our knees.”  When there weren’t any Rasetsu left, he let himself fall back against a tree.

“You okay, Miyuki? I mean, you didn’t get hurt, did you?” His breath slowed down a little when the tension of the fight left him and he sighed, “I guess we have much time to relax now, do we? Do you want to follow them to the Shinsengumi, or do you think Harada and his friends can handle them alone?”

“I’m fine, nothing a little time won’t fix,” she said looking at the minor scratches from their blades already healing on her arms and hands. Miyuki walked over to him and gave him a peck on the cheek as he relaxed for a moment. Her hands gently rubbed his shoulders as he spoke.

“If this was just a diversion I can’t imagine what the real army is like,” she frowned, “These soldiers were unskilled, I have a bad feeling about whatever ‘improvements’ he made.” While the Shinsengumi were soldiers in a war, she didn’t want them to be pulverized by fake demons. “Besides, that girl will probably need to be rescued again,” Miyuki joked, “…and it would be fun to save those baka’s asses.”


	9. Comrades

"What the hell, Furies out in the daylight," Nagakura said while panting from exhaustion, "and there are so many of them!" Harada drove his spear into the chest of one of the rasetsu as he said, "Shinpachi stop complaining and just kill them; we can't let them break through to Kondo and Chizuru." Nagakura growled and said, "I know Sano, it just sucks that we can't use Heisuke or Sannan. We could use the help"

Shiranui smirked when he heard Nagakura’s voice while approaching them, “You think us helping you is enough help? We just happened to walk along this street and heard you fighting, so…” Of course that was a lie, but the Shinsengumi didn’t need to know what had happened to them earlier. “We don’t mind lending a helping hand,” Miyuki said while driving her sword through the chest of a fury in front of Nagakura, “that is unless you don’t want our help.” She pulled the blade out and proceeded to take out two more, one with each sword.

“I think there are more than enough to go around, we know how to share right Shin,” Harada grinned. Nagakura looked at his friend then back at Miyuki, “…yeah, I think? Though it feels weird working together.” Miyuki winked and said, “oh we aren’t working together, we’re saving your asses.” She then went to work on defeating one after another, blazing a trail through the crowd to almost divide up the furies into groups.   


This army could move in daylight, and they felt slightly stronger than the diversion group. However at least for now she was going to avoid using her demon form, she didn’t want to risk going out of control again. For now she would have to do things the hard way.   


“Ne, Shiranui, your girlfriend fights pretty well,” Harada teased while killing a fury that was approaching him, “I think she’s made a bigger pile than you have with that tiny gun.” 

“Oh, shut up, Harada!” Shiranui replied with the same teasing voice and shot, missing Harada’s head by a hair and piercing a fury’s heart. “She has two swords to fight with ya know.”

“But you’re not denying the ‘girlfriend’ part,” Harada continued, smirking.

“There’s no need to,” he shrugged, “it’s true after all, isn’t it, Miyuki?”

“It’s true. Sorry Harada you missed your chance,” Miyuki teased back, “Though I doubt you would’ve been able to handle a girl like me anyway.” She blew a kiss to Shiranui and finished, “he can though.” What she said was the truth, she doubted there was a man or demon in the world that could ever handle her the way he could. “Now play nice boys, we have a whole army that needs taken down.”

Just as she finished talking Nagakura slayed a fury standing at her back. “Oy, looks like I bailed you out,” he grinned. Miyuki shook her head and pointed to the gunshot in the head Shiranui made seconds before. His shoulders slumped causing her to break out in a tiny giggle, “It’s ok Nagakura, maybe next time.”  With that she went back to work, piercing as many furies as possible as she moved through the crowd. “Ugh, they are eating their own again,” she said in disgust while slashing at the feeding frenzy over the blood, “I think I’m gonna be sick.”

Blood. Blood was being spilt everywhere on the battlefield. Her pace started to increase as she took out one fury after another. Miyuki shook her head, trying to clear her mind again and focus. She had to refuse dipping into her demon powers. “Don’t think about it, You’ve got this under control,” she thought to herself, “I won’t give in again.”

“Hey, don’t you dare freak out about all the blood now,” Shiranui said when he saw how she shook her head. “There’s nothing less we could need now… especially in front of them.” He pointed at the Shinsengumi commanders. “I know, I can’t lose it,” Miyuki nodded, “…and I won’t.” She just had to stay focused and make sure that she was the one doing the killing, not the demon blood inside her. She was Tsukuyomi Miyuki, heir to the first demon clan; and she sure as hell wasn’t going to let anyone take over her mind again.

“By the way where is Chizuru,” Miyuki asked trying to divert her thoughts elsewhere, “Her psychotic twin is after her again…I hope you boys have her safe somewhere.”

Harada nodded, “We’re trying to keep her safe.” His spear pierced a fury’s heart before he continued, “But sadly there’s no guarantee that we’ll be able to forever, especially not when crazy Kaorou is after her.”

“Harada there is an easy way,” she said while taking out two more at once, “We take the crazy ones out of the picture.” Miyuki spoke coarsely, “I know she’d disagree and say he can be saved, but I’ve seen what Kaoru and Kōdō are capable of. There’s no chance in hell that either of them have a shred of ‘nice’ left in him.” She glanced over at Nagakura and Harada, “And you both know that’s the truth.”  Miyuki darted through another group of furies, leaving another path of death behind her as she let them think about her words. A few moments later she heard a high pitch scream of “YAMATE!” Miyuki let out a sigh knowing that they would have to split up in order for the two captains to not end up dead.

“Harada, Shiranui can you finish cleaning up here?” Turning to Nagakura she said, “Why don’t you come along with me, you can take notes on how to properly save a girl.” Nagakura scrunched up his face and said, “Hey, I know how to save Chizuru. Quit making fun of me!”  Miyuki laughed and looked back at the other two, “Finish up quick, I don’t know how long I’ll be able to keep both him and Chizuru out of trouble.”

Shiranui nodded in agreement, “Nagakura, I’ll entrust her with you, okay? Watch out for her.” He was only joking and everyone knew it, but he just felt the good feeling inside of him grow. Right now he had everything he needed: an exciting fight, a friendly rival and his girlfriend on his side… This situation could have lasted forever and he wouldn’t have been mad about it.

Harada laughed, “I wouldn’t have expected you to find yourself a woman.” His spear pierced a fury’s heart. “You sure you have enough time for one in your business?”   


“I’m not longer allied with Kazama,” Shiranui replied, loading his gun and shooting. “But I’ll tell you another time.”   


“Heh, I’ll remember this promise.”   


“It’s not a promise.”   


“It is.” A wide smile on his face, Harada ducked away under Shiranui’s next bullet which ‘accidentally’ flew towards him and Shiranui realized that he didn’t think that bad about him anymore.  “Whatever. Let’s finish this so we can get to them quickly.”  A few minutes later, they had killed all the furies and smirked at each other, “Let’s go.”

~

Miyuki ran towards the sound of the girl’s scream in the woods with Nagakura trailing behind. Just before they reached her Miyuki stopped, surveying the situation. Chizuru was alone, being dragged along by Kaoru who was spouting some nonsense she couldn’t hear. “I’ll grab Chizuru then take him on,” Miyuki said to Nagakura, “Once I start fighting you make sure she doesn’t get hurt, or gets in my way, got it?” He blinked and nodded slowly as if he was scared to disagree with her. She ruffled his hair like he was a little brother and then jumped up into the line of trees.

“No, I don’t want to go with you and rebuild the Yukimura clan,” Chizuru cried as she attempted poorly to resist her twin. She took that as her cue to step in; Miyuki suddenly jumped down, pushing Kaoru towards a tree trunk as she protectively pulled the girl behind her body.    


“You really need to stop waiting for some guy to come along and save you,” Miyuki said with a wink, “Instead how about I save you Chizuru-chan?” The girl blinked at her and nodded like a scared child. She turned to face an angry Kaoru.     


“It seems that you don’t listen when a woman says ‘no’ - I need to teach you some manners,” Miyuki quipped while drawing her Katana. She didn’t give him a chance to say a word as she immediately jumped into battle.    


Nagakura immediately came out from the brush and took Chizuru as Miyuki landed her first strike on Kauoru’s blade. “How’d you get here already,” he hissed as she easily dodged his first attempt to attack her, “Well if you didn’t notice I’m good, really good.” She swiftly pivoted on one foot, managing to dodge his blow and land a nice, deep strike on his arm.    


“AH…That hurt you wench,” He growled while losing his patience. His swings were sloppy, so she sheathed her own sword. This irritated him even further as she continued to easily dodge his attacks. Once she had an opening Miyuki used both her hands and clamped down on the blade, disarming him.

“Hmm, Not a bad Katana,” she said while pointing it down at his heart, not caring that her hands were still bleeding a bit, “But the balance is off…kind of like you.” Finally the roles were reversed, and she had him in a corner. “So tell me, where is that bastard Kōdō hiding at, I have a bone to pick with him,” 

~

The two men hurried towards the forest where Shiranui felt Miyuki’s presence as well as the presences of Kaoru, Nagakura and Chizuru. “They’re over there, Harada,” he said and stopped when they approached them, laughing quietly, “they don’t seem to need our help, do they? Let’s watch them from here.” Harada gave him a sceptical glance but stayed back with him. “Whatever you want, Shiranui… as long as it’s not dangerous for them.”

“It won’t get dangerous for them. Miyuki has the situation under her control.”

 

~

Miyuki tapped her foot waiting for a response; after waiting a few moments She looked back at Nagakura who then turned Chizuru away. Her hands pushed the sword into his body quickly, making sure to miss his heart by a good inch and a half. He made a noise from the sudden rush of pain, but didn’t say a word. She saw his hand start to move towards his pocket, and waited till he had ahold of the hidden gun to kick it away. “I’m not falling for that trick again,” Miyuki said, “Now tell me, where is Kōdō.”

“…Edo. I’m supposed to bring Chizuru to Edo,” he muttered in defeat. “Thank you,” she said while keeping him pinned down with his own sword, “now where in edo?” Kaoru again refused, so she twisted the blade making him wince in pain. “Ok, Ok, at the clinic…at the clinic in Edo.”

“Please stop hurting Kaoru,” Chizuru cried as she tugged on Miyuki’s arm, “Let him go.” Miyuki refused to take her eyes off him as she yelled, “Nagakura, great job on keeping her out of my way.” She sighed and said, “Chizuru, you need to back away right now, he’s dangerous.”

“But he’s my brother!!!!” She yelled with tears in her eyes while now pulling on the hilt of her sword, “He’s not going to hurt me, he told you what you wanted to know!”

Her shenanigans gave Kaoru a chance to grab the revolver, and as she heard the barrel click Miyuki let go of her katana and shielded Chizuru from the gunshot. “Baka,” Miyuki growled as it lodged in her shoulder, making her entire arm go numb with pain. As she slumped to the ground Kaoru freed himself as she muttered, “Great, Now he’s getting away.”

Shiranui winced when he saw Miyuki getting shot again and he hurried towards her. “He really seems fond of shooting you. Are you okay?” He knew that it was probably a silver bullet - of course, as a demon, Kaoru knew what could hurt his own kind seriously. 

“Yeah, I’m fine. It just really stings,” Miyuki said while hating that once again she ended up taking a bullet, “at least this time it wasn’t in my stomach..now that hurt like hell.” She turned back to Shiranui and said “oh, and promise me that you’ll shoot him with silver bullets next time.” 

“I definitely will,” Shiranui nodded; he wouldn’t forgive Kaoru that easily for shooting his girlfriend twice. As Miyuki smiled at him in an effort not to grimace he could see straight through it.  Seeing her like this made his heart beat faster in empathy, but he knew there wasn’t much he could do now, so he just put his hand onto her head and started stroking her hair in a way he had always loved it when his mother had done it.

“Oh Chizuru, what Miyuki was doing was for the best,” Harada sighed and patted the girl’s head gently. “I know they are your family but you’re going to have to accept that their ambitions are not good. They want to destroy the human race, and I know you don’t want that to happen.” After a few minutes Harada had seemed to calm her down, and she then approached Miyuki sheepishly.   


“I’m sorry Miyuki,” Chizuru apologized as her eyes were still full of tears, “You got shot because of me, It’s my fault.” Miyuki nodded and said calmly, “Yes, it was your fault because you didn’t listen to Nagakura or I.” As the girls eyes started to well back up again she continued, “But, I think you learned from this right? Now no more crying Chizuru; just get this bullet out and treat the wound so we can call it even.”   


As Chizuru ran ahead with Nagakura to grab some medical supplies, Miyuki leaned against Shiranui as he asked, “Did you at least get some information about where Kōdō is?” Instead of thinking about the burning pain in her right shoulder she answered his question. “Yeah, I did learn something. Kaoru is meeting with Kōdō back at his clinic in Edo.” She tightened her hand a little more on her wound as the bleeding continued. “I’m guessing that he only told me because they want us to know,” Miyuki said, “Harada, you guys need to keep Chizuru from going back there, you know that’s what they expect her to do.” She turned to Shiranui and finished, “It will likely be a trap for us as well.”    


“I wish I was a better strategist, He’s just always four steps ahead,” she sighed, “I’m open to ideas if anyone has any.”   


“They want us to know, huh… then they’ll probably wait for us with an even bigger army, or instead, they won’t be there at all. You’re right, if this isn’t a trap, I don’t know… Hey, I’m sorry to have to suggest this, and I don’t like it either, but maybe we should get ourselves some help for this. I mean, we can kill Kōdō and Kaoru on our own, but it’d probably be better if we had someone else with us who can distract the furies so they don’t interrupt us.”   


“Hmm, I see your point,” she said. He was right, she didn’t want to bring anyone else into this, but it was going to be necessary at some point. “I guess we should start thinking who to ask,” said Miyuki. It was a hard choice, did they involve the Shinsengumi, or would they involve other demons?

Chizuru returned and immediately went to work on Miyuki. She laid her head in Shiranui’s lap as the the girl carefully started to remove the bullet from her shoulder. It was painful without having anything to numb the area, but at the same time it was a relief when it was gone. After she wrapped up the wound Miyuki finally sat up. “Thanks Chizuru.” 

Miyuki began to opening and closing her tingling hand as she said, “Looks like I won’t be holding a sword in my right hand for a bit. Just my luck.” 

  
“I’ll be your right hand, then,” Shiranui smirked, knowing that it sounded as if they were in some kind of a bad romantic novel. She turned to Shiranui, “Oh well, looks like we have some time to rest and carefully plan our next move.” Miyuki grinned at his quip and playfully blinked at him with “lovey” eyes. She had no problem with him taking up her sword, or rather revolver for her if the need arose in the meantime.   
  
She looked at the Shinsengumi gang of misfits and laughed, “So please tell me one of you baka’s have some Sake around here. We should celebrate slaying an entire fury army after all.” Harada laughed, “We wouldn’t survive this if we didn’t have sake around. Of course we do. And you actually want to drink together with us?”   
  
“Why wouldn’t I want to?” Miyuki pouted, “The way you said that hurt my feelings Harada.” 

“What’s your problem, Harada? Aren't you happy to be able to spend some more time with her,” the black-haired demon laughed. Harada’s eyes sparkled teasingly, “Of coarse I am...Are you scared I’d that I'm gonna make her leave you?”

“Never in my whole life, and that’s gonna be a long time,” Shiranui countered and it felt good, it felt so damn good to be able to laugh a honest, real laugh like he hadn’t done it in years. “Let’s skip this part and get over to the sake, then, huh?”   


She smirked as Shiranui and Harada messed with each other. “Boys, please don’t fight over me again, we all know how that will end,” she teased before moving in to land a kiss on Shiranui’s lips, “With me kicking both of your asses….left handed too.” Miyuki laughed along with them before finally settling down, “…I agree, let’s move onto the sake.”

Chizuru returned to Hjjikata, while the four of them sat around a fire sharing the bottle and stories. “Oh Harada, you should have seen the look on Kazama’s face when I stood up to him,” Miyuki laughed as she told them the story of their first meeting, “I think it was right up there with the look he gave when Kyo told him he was leaving.” She poured herself another round of Sake, “I wasn’t sure if he was going to start a fire with his eyes or start crying because his feelings were hurt.” 

“Hah, Kazama and feelings? Do you mean ‘feelings for me,’ in the end?” Shiranui laughed, “Kazama has feelings for nobody. If he was going to cry, then he’d have cried because he’s lost one of his two… well. Not even friends! … ‘fighters’ would describe it best, I think.”

He didn’t even see the men of the Shinsengumi as his enemies or not even as his rivals any longer. Sitting here with them and Miyuki, drinking sake together - it felt like a home, like something he hadn’t felt in countless years.

And if he only thought about how it would end someday… no, he didn’t want to think about it now.

Instead, he poured himself another sake and asked Miyuki quietly, “Wouldn’t it be good to work together with them, at least in the case of the furies? I mean, we don’t know other demons besides Kazama, and he definitely won’t help us, even if he basically has set himself a similar goal. And the Shinsengumi is strong. At least for human standards, but I mean, Harada for example is able to fight me equally, and people like that are pretty rare.”

Miyuki nodded, “I’d rather get shot by Kaoru again than ask Kazama for help, and I know now that we can trust them.” She momentarily stole his sake saucer since hers was empty and took a sip. “But I should tell them some of the truth, just not, you know the big thing.”  She returned his cup and lifted hers up, “I’m empty, someone better pour me another since I can’t do it myself.”

“I think this woman can out drink us Shinpachi,” Harada smirked while grabbing the bottle and filling her cup. Nagakura laughed, “That’s not a fair comparison Sano, I mean can demons even GET drunk?” Miyuki laughed, “It’s possible…but it takes more Sake then you boys have.”

“Oh, I have another story to tell you,” she said getting a bit more serious, “Do you know where the ‘water of life’ came from?” Miyuki went onto explain that it came from the blood of a specific line of demons that have since been eradicated. She made sure to leave out the part about how it was her lineage, and that she was the last one alive. “Shiranui decided to join me and stop Kōdō so that our fellow demons can finally rest in peace,” she finished, “It’s not going to be an easy fight in Edo, I guess you could call it the challenge of a lifetime.”   
  
“'The challenge of a lifetime?’” Shiranui repeated, his eyebrows raised, “for a human it’d be more like ‘the challenge of two lifetimes,’ huh?”

“Only real fighters would stand a chance,” she smiled, “…so I still have some openings to fill. That is, if either of you think you can handle it.” Nagakura looked over at Harada and said with a grin, “Sano, did she just say ‘if’ we could handle it? Nothing can stop the 2nd and 10th division captains of the Shinsengumi. Pffft, I think what she means is  _ they _ need  _ us _ .”

“Hey, I wouldn’t necessarily say need,” Miyuki corrected pretending to be annoyed, “Remember we did help you take out that army, and I was the one who took a bullet for Chizuru.” She smiled and finished, “We can call this a truce between us four if you both come along and fight with us rather than against us.”   


“A truce,” Harada laughed. “Hey, I haven’t considered either of you my enemy at all. I always saw our fights as a challenge but never as a threat.  Don’t you think about tit the same way Shiranui?” He asmirked as he continued, “You had several chances to just aim at my head and kill me, but you didn’t.”

“Why should I have killed you? You’re a good entertainment.” That wasn’t the truth, but he was sure Harada would know what he really meant. He poured himself another cup of sake and emptied it with one gulp.

“Well I’m happy neither of you decided to kill each other.” Miyuki turned to Nagakura and joked in a serious tone. “Although I do feel bad, it seems you’re best friend status may be in jeopardy Nagakura.” The spiky-haired man scrunched up his face and said, “No way, Sano and I will always be best bro’s even if he plays nice with Shiranui.” The captain looked over awkwardly at his friend and pouted, “….right Sano…?”

Miyuki started snickering, unable to hold it in any longer, “Nagakura-kun you are so gullible!” The captain crossed his arms and turned his head away, “I am not…I KNEW you were joking! Hey…wait, why did you call me Nagakura-KUN?!” Miyuki tilted her head to the side and said, “…well because you are my junior after all. I totally outrank you in smarts, skills, and looks.”

She grinned and snuggled next to Shiranui, “…right Kyo?” She was having fun messing with them, but it was all in goodhearted fun. Things were going to get serious soon, she was going to enjoy this while she could. Shiranui smirked, “Yeah of course, you’re better than him from my perspective.” 

Harada laughed and patted Nagakura’s shoulder. “Don’t worry Shin. You’ve been my best friend for so many years, and I’m not gonna throw that away for him, even if we’re getting along well.”   


“While I could drink all night we should probably stop, I don’t want those two to be complaining about having a hangover tomorrow on the way to Edo.”

“You’re right… we’re taking them with us so they can fight and not so they can complain about how tired they are or how much their heads hurt.”

“We’re used to drinking too much you know…” Nagakura pouted, still not completely satisfied with what they had said, but at least a little relieved that Harada didn’t plan on leaving him alone.

“Yeah, but not if you’re gonna travel such a long way on the day after,” Shiranui decided strictly, holding back a chuckle.  Miyuki nodded and said, “Exactly. Besides, We can all drink to our heart's content after we kick their asses. Then a hangover wouldn’t matter.” Nagakura sighed and said, “OK, But I’m gonna to hold you to that  _ whole drink till I decided to stop _ thing.”

“Since we’re leaving in a few hours I had better get my beauty sleep now.” She planted a small kiss on Shiranui’s lips, followed by a longer, deeper one right after. “Goodnight, I’ll leave the job of putting the kids to bed up to you,” she said with a wink. 

Miyuki laid down on her left side, using her arm as a pillow so that she didn’t rest her aching wound on the ground. Right now she really missed the comfort of a futon, but she knew this pain was only temporary. Once things were settled she would finally be able to relax. She closed her eyes, and slowly drifted off to sleep dreaming about what was sure to come when it was all over.   
  
“You heard her,” Shiranui joked and clapped twice, “Hurry to bed, kids!” Harada replied with a laugh while Nagakura sighed and shook his head. They got up and left a few minutes later after having been told when to be back the next day.  Shiranui walked over to Miyuki who already was sleeping and gently put his arm around her waist to pull her close and keep her warm. Things had changed so quickly yet again; not only did he have a strong woman by his side, but also now two comrades. It felt good, so good that he hoped it would never end.


	10. Leave it to Us

“You’re a funny guy, Shiranui. You’re telling us to be here at sunrise and then we come here, dead tired, only to see the two of you cuddling and asleep,” joked Harada as he stood over the two sleeping demons.

“There is nothing wrong with cuddling,” Miyuki mumbled with her eyes still shut, “You’re just jealous that he gets to cuddle with me and you don’t.” As she felt Shiranui move and let go of her she pouted, knowing full well she would have to get up as well. “I hate mornings,” she muttered quietly.  Miyuki sat up slowly and winced. Her entire upper body still ached from being shot the day before, and as she tested her right hand she realized her nerves still hadn’t healed. Kaoru just had to shoot her with silver didn’t he? Using her left hand she grabbed both her swords off the ground and tucked them into her obi, hoping that by the time they reached Edo she would be able to use them.

“I’m ready,” she said while flinging her small supplies bag over her good shoulder, “Let’s head out.” They started walking, and unlike before she and Shiranui had to move at their pace. “So what did your commander say about you both leaving,” she asked casually, “…with two demons?”

“Oh.” Nagakura looked as if he had forgotten something important. “Uh Sano, does he even know that?”

“Don’t worry,” Harada laughed, “I told him that there’s some business we need to take care of and that we’ll be away for an unknown time. He didn’t seem too happy, but Hijikata still allowed us to go.”   
  
She wouldn’t have expected him to have been happy about two of his best captains leaving, but she was glad he did let them go without any problems. “Well from what you were saying last night both of you haven’t been too fond of Kondo’s decisions lately,” Miyuki said remembering their conversation, “so perhaps he took that into account when he said yes, after all he isn’t just your commander, he is your friend.”    
  
Shiranui checked his gun and asked, “Is there a village on our way to Edo? Guess I need a few more silver bullets for Kaoru.” She turned back to Shiranui and nodded, “As long as the army hasn’t wiped out their stockpile, there should be a village we can stop at about halfway to Edo.” Likely they would reach there at dusk at the rate they were walking, but she wasn’t in a rush.  "I’m thinking we can stop there and rest for the night,” Miyuki said, “Then finish the trip to Edo the next day. We need to be well rested for what’s ahead.” 

“So are you like Chizuru,” Nagakura asked casually making conversation. Miyuki raised her eyebrow and said, “Um…what exactly do you mean by that? I think her and I are complete opposites.” He quickly blurted out, “No No, Well you’re fast like Shiranui and Kazama, so are you one of those pure demons too? But Kazama said women demons are rare so…” She nodded her head and answered, “Yes, I’m considered a pureblood, but being fast and strong doesn’t come naturally just because I have demon powers.” 

Miyuki looked at him and continued, “I’ve trained in many different disciplines since I was a child so that I could become a strong warrior. And I intend to keep training so that I can become even stronger.” She knew most people usually trained for two reasons; to become more powerful or to protect something. For her it was a matter of honor and self pride. As the last of her bloodline she wanted to become a force to be reckoned with, one that will once again bring strength back to the Tsukuyomi name. 

“When I was growing up my father said I needed a strong nickname, so he called me his ‘Chīsana Senshi’ ( _tiny warrior_ ).” Miyuki smiled, “I think it’s appropriate for a demon like me, don’t you agree?” Though right now she didn’t exactly feel like a strong warrior. Walking along the rough terrain caused her shoulder to scream with pain from the strain on her back. Refusing to let her face grimace publicly, she slowed her pace slightly. 

Shiranui smirked when he heard her conversation with Nagakura. It was kind of cute how the man desperately tried to be an adult and then his mind fell back to a child’s age as soon as he said something. For a moment he wondered what Miyuki’s father was like, especially since he called her his tiny warrior instead of what she actually was.  When he noticed that Miyuki started walking a little more slowly, he lowered his pace to walk next to her and asked, “Are you okay? We can walk slower if you’re not feeling well. Harada will understand it and Nagakura, uh… he’ll do what Harada tells him to do.”

“…and here I thought I was being sneaky,” Miyuki smirked, “I can’t hide anything from you can I?” She was about to tell him yes when Harada and Nagakura stopped suddenly. Her eyes darted from them to Shiranui when she saw them both take a fighting stance. That’s when she heard shuffling feet, and the distinct smell appeared. “Rasetsu…”

Within seconds a group of them were attacking. Miyuki instinctively reached for her katana, but the pain in her shoulder stopped her from being able to unsheathe it. “Dammit,” she muttered as she drew her wakizashi with her left hand and driving it through the chest of a fury, but she missed hitting his heart and had to quickly pull out her blade. Before she could strike a second time, she was forced into defense.  Miyuki was able to dodge the attack, but in the process she fell onto the rocky path with a thud. Her shoulder suddenly felt wet, and she knew her wound had reopened. The smell of her blood was now in the air, and all of the rasetsu all began to look in her direction with a look of hunger in their eyes.

Shiranui quickly shot the rasetsu that was the closest one to Miyuki. “Harada, Nagakura!” They immediately knew what he wanted to tell them, and the three of them stood around Miyuki in a circle. Harada smirked, “She really means alot to you, huh?”

“If you had a girlfriend wouldn’t you protect her?” he replied and dodged Harada’s spear which was shooting towards him, only missing him by millimetres, piercing another fury’s heart while Nagakura beheaded one of them. 

Miyuki sat there in surprise as all three of them stood around her and began to fight off the rasetsu. Normally she was one the one doing the slaying, but all she could do was sit on the ground and grip her bleeding shoulder. Inside she felt angry by being unable to fight, but also embarrassed that she needed all three of them to protect her.

The three of them managed to fight back the furies since there weren’t too many of them, and when they were alone again, panting and trying to calm down, they kneeled down next to the girl.  “Do you need to take a break, or do you want to go on?”

When all three of them knelt down she said, “arigatō min'na.” When Shiranui asked if she needed a break she nodded softly. “I should wait till the bleeding stops, I don’t want to draw any more of them towards us,” she said while looking down. 

Nagakura took off his bandana, folded it, then pressed it against her shoulder to slow the bleeding that was seeping through her bandages. “Baka, Don’t fight when you're injured,” he scolded, “It’s not like you’re here alone ya know.”  Harada nodded, “Yeah, Leave it to us three. We all need you to be healed up by the time we get to Edo if we want to win.” Shinpachi nodded and said, “Ya!”

“All right, All right, I promise that won’t pick up a sword until I’m healed,” she said while letting out a small laugh, “but only if you all stop lecturing me.” Miyuki looked at Shiranui and gave him a smile, “…I hope you’re not going to lecture me as well.”

“Ne, Shiranui just so you know I’m not making a move on your woman,” Harada grinned while taking his white sash off his waist. Miyuki raised an eyebrow as he leaned in and wrapped it around her chest tightly, holding Nagakura’s bandana in place over her right shoulder blade. As he tied it he nodded and said, “That should do till we can get you some fresh bandages at that village.”

“We need to get moving again if we want to make it there by nightfall,” Harada said before turning back to Shiranui, “I think it’s your turn to take care of Miyuki now.” A grin formed on his face as he teased, “But, if you don’t want to carry her I’ll volunteer.” She scrunched up her face and said, “Hey, I can still walk! It’s not like I’m on my deathbed!”    
  
Shiranui lifted Miyuki up to carry her, much like that night when everything changed between them. “Admit it, you need that rest now. You were shot yesterday and now you’re wound has reopened. Harada may have more experience with women than me, but I can at least see that much.”  Of course he was only joking, just like Harada… and it felt like he had finally found friends. Friends like Takasugi had been. Friends that he would be willing to give his life for, even although he only really knew them for a few days.

They walked for some more hours, luckily not noticeably slowed down, and reached the village they had been talking about by evening.  “That should be it,” Shiranui said and turned his head to inform Miyuki about their arrival and that they’d go looking for rooms to sleep now when he noticed that apparently, she had fallen asleep.  A smile hushed over his lips.

~

_“Oni no Ōjo, You are the last of the Tsukuyomi; Your blood is strong. Accept the demon and become what you were destined to be.”_   
  
Miyuki blinked and recognized the voice she hadn’t heard for ages. “Chichi,” she said sitting up in complete surprise not seeing anyone around, “Is that you Chichi?” All she heard around her was the voice of her father repeating the same words over and over again. What was he talking about? Accept the demon, what was he trying to tell her?  “Chichi, I don’t know what I was destined to be,” she asked frantically, “…why are you calling me Oni no Ōjo?” Her eyes continued to dart around, looking for where his voice was coming from as it repeated the phrase again. “Chichi, please stop talking in riddles, Tell me what you want me to do!” 

Suddenly she was surrounded by an intense wall of flames and could see hundreds of black shadows…shadows with red eyes. They surrounded her, swallowing her up into darkness. Unable to scream she felt the life being sucked out of her body as those red eyes stared at her. “Chichi,” she called out desperately, “Chichi help me!” She felt unbelievable pain through her body and weakness spread as she heard his voice once more.   


_ “Oni no Ōjo, You are the last of the Tsukuyomi; Your blood is strong. Accept the demon and become what you were destined to be.” _

Miyuki opened her eyes and sat up suddenly, catching her breath. It was only a dream, but it felt so real. She looked around the unfamiliar room and saw Shiranui, Nagakura, and Harada all fast asleep. Her heart rate started to calm down, but she still felt shaken by her dream.

She stood up slowly, making sure not to wake anyone as she quietly crept outside onto the tiny balcony to get some air. Her grey eyes stared up at the densely clouded sky, unable to see any hint of the stars or moon. Much like her heart, the sky also had an ominous feeling. Miyuki shivered as the wind gusted past; Something dark was brewing on the horizon.   
  
Yawning, Shiranui sat up and quietly said, “hey,” when he saw Miyuki standing on the balcony. “Did you sleep well?” Considering that they had been able to sleep in futons now instead of having to use the forest ground with all its leaves and sticks and insects as bed, he expected her to say yes and got up to accompany her outside to look at the sky.   
  
“Hmmmm, Oh yeah I did,” she said turning around briefly, “It was a nice change.”  She leaned against his shoulder, feeling the warmth of his body. “How about you,” Miyuki asked, “You must have been tired after carrying me all this way.” She stood on her tiptoes and sweetly gave him a kiss, “Which by the way, thank you.” He smiled after her lips released and said, “you don’t have to thank me, though I will take a kiss as payment anyday.”   
  
The wind blew past again, and she felt a chill down her spine once more. Miyuki reached over, interlocking the fingers of her left hand with his. She squeezed it tightly for a moment as she said quietly, “Something ominous is approaching, you can feel it too…can’t you?” Miyuki closed her eyes and said, “I know you’re here, and that we’ll face what’s ahead together…but I can’t help myself from feeling so…uneasy.”

“I can feel it,” Shiranui agreed slowly. “But it should be over once we’ve killed Kōdō, right? We just have to find out where he really is and then, we have to break through his fury barrier, and then-” he stopped and added, a little more gentle, “I won’t kill him if you want to have the pleasure.” 

“I hope so,” she said, “…but I’m guessing there will always be demons like him out there.” Miyuki perked up and said with a wink, “you better let me finish him, or that’s grounds for breaking up.” She was just teasing him, after all he knew how much this meant to her.  She was usually so calm and confident; but between losing control of her demon form, getting injured, and being unable to fight her confidence in herself was starting to waiver.  Before Miyuki thought she could do this all alone, now she felt like she couldn’t do it without the help of Shiranui and the others. With that help though came risk; even though they agreed to join her, could she really let them all put their lives on the line for her clan’s revenge? 

Miyuki buried those thoughts in her mind and said, “Can you help me wrap my wound back up properly? I want to do it before those two wake up; I don’t want Harada trying to take a peek at me with my shirt off.”   
  
“Yeah, of course I can. Do you want me to do it out here so they can’t see you just in case they wake up?” Miyuki nodded and carefully slipped off her top, covering herself slightly with the fabric just to be safe. “I should really get some new clothes,” she laughed as she noticed the the mix of red stains on her clothes, “fury blood is so hard to clean out of white and grey.”  

“Get yourself black clothes, then,” Shiranui smirked while walking back in and taking the new bandages they had bought the day before. “You can’t see anything on them. It’s an experience.” He wrapped the bandages around her injury and asked, “Is it tight enough like this or do you want me to tie it tighter?”   
  
“You just want us to match,” she teased, “But it does make sense, especially with everything up ahead. I’ll do some shopping before we leave then.” While he was wrapping the bandages around her upper chest she giggled slightly when one of his fingers brushed against her skin, “ah! that tickles…”  After he finished up Miyuki said with a smile, “It’s perfect. Hopefully It’s looking better? I know I won’t scar, but I wish I could start regaining the feeling my fingers again.” 

"Hey don't worry, you'll be back to slaying rasetsu in no time," He said while helping her carefully slide her shift back on. She nodded in thanks for his encouragement, before she stood back up.   “Are you still tired,” she asked, “I’m not, but I wouldn’t mind enjoying that futon and warming up next to you for a while.” Shiranui shook his head and wrapped his arms around her from behind. "I'm not tired," he said while leaving a trail of kisses along her jaw, "so how about we stay out here, together till those idiots wake up?" Her head rolled to the side and laid against his shoulder, "I'd like that Kyo."


	11. Split in Two

“Arrrrrggghhhh this is so frustrating,” Miyuki said while sitting down and letting out a sigh, “He couldn’t have vanished into thin air, If that brat Kaoru tricked us again I’m going to strangle him to death.” She continued to stare out the window wondering when Harada and Shiranui would come back from their rounds in the city. They had been taking turns keeping watch on Kōdō’s clinic and Edo, looking for any clues. So far they all had turned up nothing. Only a few stray Rasetsu here and there.

“Ne, Miyuki just relax, drink some Sake, and wait…we get to go out next after all,” Nagakura said with a grin, “Besides, I’m sure that bastard will show up soon.” She looked over at him and said, “Sure, but you’re forgetting one thing….you finished off the Sake last night.” His head sunk and he started to laugh, “Hahahaha, yeah…I forgot about that…though it’s Sano’s fault too.”

She shot him a glare and let her eyes flicker gold, and he instantly stopped laughing. “I’m sorry, uh, errr,” he nervously stuttered, “Just don’t go all demon on me. I’ll buy the next bottle!” Miyuki’s eyes went back to their normal grey and now she was the one laughing, “great..then the next bottle is on you.” Nagakura tensed up and said, “HEY, You tricked me didn’t you? You knew those eyes would freak me out!”

She smirked and let her eyes flicker again, “are you going back on your word?” He shook his head profusely and said, “no…nope….I’ll buy I swear.”

~

Harada sighed and shook his head in annoyance, “There’s just no sign of them, is there? Can’t you feel them anywhere, Shiranui?”

Shiranui mirrored his moves, “I can’t. And Miyuki hasn’t been able to either, so they seem to be pretty good at suppressing their presence. We could go and enter the clinic, but that’d be-” he interrupted himself and shot, his bullet hitting a fury’s heart, “-that’d be as if you ran into a trap on purpose. A stupid idea.”

Harada’s spear pierced another fury’s heart and he agreed, “Pretty true… but this amount of Rasetsu looks more like them, doesn’t it?”

Indeed, there were much more furies today, a whole army, and the black-haired demon quickly decided, “You go back and tell Miyuki and Nagakura. I’ll distract them and try to lure them away from the townspeople. Hurry, just do it Harada!”

Harada looked at him stunned for a few seconds, then nodded and turned around. “We’ll be back soon!”

~

“MIYUKI,” Nagakura yelled while pointing to the window, “LOOK.” She left her chair and moved quickly to the window and there it was, before her eyes Kōdō was going into the clinic. “Oh you have got to be kidding me,” Miyuki growled, “We can’t go in there, not without backup.”

“I’ll watch him from here,” Miyuki said, “You go find Shiranui and Harada since you know this city better than me.” Nagakura looked at her and shook his head, “Oh no, you’re going to go storming in there and start fighting without us!” Miyuki smacked him on the head and said, “Baka! I want revenge, not to end up six feet under. I’m not going in there alone, we need help - that’s why you need to go get them…and fast.”

“Well then, you promise, no matter what you won’t go in there? Shiranui would kill me if you did,” He said while swallowing hard. “I Promise on the honor of my clan that I will not go in there, no matter what,” Miyuki said, “Now Go!” He finally nodded then left the house and began to run down the street. She watched patiently, hoping that they’d return soon before her nerves got the best of her.

~

“Sano,” Nagakura said while running into his friend, “What are you doing here?” Harada looked at him and said, “We need you both to come with me, the Rasetsu army appeared.” Shinpachi’s eyes grew wide as he said, “…but Kōdō is at the clinic that’s why I came to get you guys!” They stood there and looked at each other for a moment, and realized what was going on.  

“They want to split us up,” they both said simultaneously. They immediately turned around, heading back to where they each came from. They had to get to both Shiranui and Miyuki, and explain what was going on.

~

Miyuki watched the flickering candlelights in the clinic patiently with a gnawing feeling in her stomach. Something wasn’t right about this, he was just sitting inside, waiting for someone to show up. “I’m not going to fall for this Kōdō,” she muttered, “I made a promise, I’m not going in there without….”

Then she felt a sudden sharp pain in her chest, and looked down to see the end of a sword sticking through. As the sword was yanked back out she winced; the wound started to slowly heal as she gasped for breath. In one quick move she unsheathed her sword and swung at the figure behind her, but she was quickly met with the swift kick of a sandal to her head. Her eyes were slightly blurred now, but she didn’t need them to know who it was.

After taking a few seconds to focus she moved her blade at the speed of lightning and blocked his next attack. “So you sneak in and stab someone in the back, I expected better from someone like you Kazama.” She opened her eyes and could make out the body in front of her. “Better from me? Why would someone like me bother to fight something as low as you fairly,” he growled while driving his sword into her previously injured shoulder.

Miyuki groaned in pain, and her blade started to shake in her hand as he dug it completely through, pinning her practically to the wall. “You bastard,” she said while taking her short sword to strike his arm. He quickly dodged the attack, then took her own sword and put it through her other shoulder. Miyuki tensed up from the pain and tried to focus on awakening her demon powers. Once she did she would be able to heal up and take him on…but they wouldn’t manifest. What the hell was going on? Why were they refusing her now when she needed it the most?

“This will teach you to mess with Kazama Chikage.” She suddenly gasped as he wrapped his hands around her throat and said, “I’m not sure what he wants with you, but I hope you enjoy your time with Kōdō.” Miyuki felt weak from the lack of air, and her eyes were growing heavier. Her heart raced as he said those words. She would rather die right there then ever be given over to that devil. “No..you can’t…you don’t understand…I’m…” She couldn’t finish her sentence, and as everything started to fade to black she only had one thought in her mind; “Kyo, please, I need you…”

~

Nagakura arrived back at the stakeout house just in time to see Kazama hand over Miyuki’s limp, bloodied body to Kōdō. His eyes grew wide as he realized he was too late. “Dammit,” he said out loud as he wondered what he should do, one man up against two demons were not good odds. “Shit, Shiranui is gonna kill me if I don’t stop them,” he said quietly before letting out a deep breath, “Well, If I’m going to die it wouldn’t be bad to do so for a woman…right Sano?” Nagakura moved from his spot and jumped out onto the open street. “Kazama, why the hell are you working with Kōdō, and what did you do to Miyuki?”

“What does it matter to you,” Kazama raised his eyebrow and continued, “We’re just making a mutually beneficial transaction, that’s all.” Kōdō nodded and thanked Kazama before disappearing with Miyuki.

“Hey, don’t you dare leave,” Nagakura gritted his teeth and drew his blade and dashed forward, ”Let her go!” Kazama laughed and easily blocked his attack so that he couldn’t chase after Kōdō. “Do you intend to fight me over a worthless demon woman? You must have a death wish, you could never defeat me.”

“She’s sure not worthless,” He countered while trying to get at least one hit on Kazama. “And I know I won’t be able to beat you myself, but I can wear you down in the meantime!” Demon or not, like with Chizuru that didn’t matter. He was willing to fight for his friends, and that included both Miyuki and Shiranui. Nagakura continued to fight the demon with everything he had, taking heavy damage to his body. All he could do was buy some time, and hope that Sano and Shiranui would get back there soon.

~

“Shiranui!”

He turned around and shot a rasetsu that was approaching Harada from behind. “Why didn’t you bring them?!”

“Listen to me!” The red-haired man said as he dodged a strike by one of the furies and hurried to get to his comrade’s side, “Kōdō…he wanted us to split up! Shin said they saw Kōdō entering the clinic, but those furies here… It was a plan, Shiranui, obviously a plan to separate you!”   
  
The demon winced when a sudden bad feeling hit him like a wave, “Miyuki’s in danger…I’m sure of it.” He could sense pain, and swore he heard her voice in his head begging for him to find her. “We need to get back, Harada. Can you fight while running?”

“That’s not a problem, but I’m not as fast as you…” Shiranui shook his head, “Come here. I’ll carry you.”

“You WHAT?!”

“Didn’t you hear me? I said I’ll carry you! Come on now, or I’ll leave you here.” Harada hurried to come over to him and Shiranui lifted him up, careful not to get hurt by the long spear. “You’re heavier than you look.”

“Thanks, that’s what I love to hear.”

“I know.” Thanks to Shiranui’s ability to run so much faster than humans, they arrived at the inn a lot faster than they would’ve been if Harada had run on his own. Shiranui’s eyes widened when he recognised that it was Kazama who was fighting Nagakura there, then he took his gun wordlessly and shot.

Nagakura turned around when he heard the gunshot and chuckled, “took you long enough Sano.” He stumbled back and took a seat on a nearby crate to rest his injuries, “The bastard’s all yours Shiranui.”

Kazama smirked at his former subordinate and dodged the gunshots, “Why the serious face Shiranui?” He tossed a bloodied Katana on the ground in front of him with a distinct black and red woven hilt, “I did you a favor after all, she was such a pathetic woman…All bark and no bite.” Kazama took his stance waiting for him to make the next move, “just like you…”

Shiranui growled, “why do you think you’re doing me a favor by hurting the person I care for?!” He stared at his former leader and snarled like an angry animal. “She isn't pathetic, you are for sinking so low. This battle won't be determined by strength alone. I’m a thousand times stronger than you since I have something you don’t have; someone I love so much that I'll do anything for her.”

Behind his back, Harada smirked and mumbled “Seems like he finally found the real reason to live, huh?” With a smile, Nagakura nodded and took his Katana and held it out behind Shiranui, “Take this too, and try not to break it.” Maybe he hadn’t fought with a Katana lately, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have experience with it. And he was unbelievably thankful for Nagakura because he had offered him his sword.

Shiranui took a deep breath, “I’d hoped we’d be able to leave each other alone in the future, but after what you've done aligning yourself with that monster and hurting Miyuki, I won't hold back. You’ll pay for what you did.” With these words, he leaped forward to attack his former leader.

Kazama chuckled and Shiranui’s speech about having something to fight for and love. To him it was just a bunch of meaningless banter. “Pathetic,” he sneered as he picked up Miyuki’s Katana, “If you love her so much than I’ll just use her sword to finish you off.” He grinned as Shiranui moved in to attack him, thinking that his attacks would be sloppy due to all the emotion he was fighting with. “I didn’t align myself with him,” Kazama corrected, “I made a deal.” He then started to increase his own attacks, sending a barrage of quick blows towards his opponent.  “All I had to do was get him that worthless demon girl, and in return he will stop using the Ochimizu.”

“You can find yourself another demon, or maybe a human to replace her since it seems you’ve grown so fond of them,” Kazama said as his eyes flickered gold and his hair turned white as snow. “Now why don’t you show me this power you think you have to defeat me.“  
  
Fighting with a sword in only one hand was a little hard, Shiranui had to admit. But in exchange he was able to use two weapons, and while he blocked Kazama’s blows, he shot at him and managed to hit his wrist so he had to let go of Miyuki’s sword. “You’re the worst,” Shiranui growled while his hair also turned white, and his eyes became golden.

“You can't just replace someone you love. She's my gunpowder; Without Miyuki I'd just be an empty shell,” He shot again and with his other hand flung the sword forward, “Harada’s a hell of a lot better at explaining love than me...but I don't know if even he could make you understand this feeling!”

Suddenly, there was a red flash shooting past him, throwing Kazama back. “Can’t let you handle this all alone when you’re talking about me in such a nice way,” Harada smiled, “How about you give Shin back his Katana and then we help you?”

“I don’t need help.”

Nagakura chuckled and took his sword, “I know I said he’s all yours now, but I think I changed my mind. This is something that matters to all of us, isn’t it? Let’s show him what in means to care about something!”

Kazama stood back up with a sneer drawing his own sword, “You can’t even take me on without the help of humans? How sad and pathetic. Perhaps you did belong with her after all.” He quickly used his increased strength and speed to his advantage, shifting between fighting all three of them, “Friendship is without meaning, and love? Love just leads to bad decisions.”

“Even if you had an entire army of friends you still wouldn’t be able to defeat me,” he said while continuing to land heavy blows on Nagakura and Harada, while dodging Shiranui’s bullets. “I find it amusing that all three of you are fighting for one meaningless life,” He said while landing a strike on Nagakura’s arm then Harada’s leg, “…what fools you all are.”

“Kōdō made fools out of all of you,” Kaoru jumped down with his usual grin, “Including you, Kazama.” He laughed, “But please, feel free to kill each other and save me the trouble.”

Shiranui took advantage of the situation and shot another time, and this time his bullet lodged itself in Kazama’s shoulder before he replied coldly, “Did you really believe Kōdō would stop using Ochimizu if he got hold of Miyuki?"

Kazama stopped for a moment as the silver bullet lodged in his shoulder stung. “What do you mean he made a fool of me? He assured me of the deal.” Kaoru smirked and said, “Oh he doesn’t need the Ochimizu anymore, now that he has the real thing and can create a new type of fury.” Kazama glared at Kaoru then back at Shiranui, “What does he mean that Kōdō can create a new type of fury?” Kaoru laughed and continued, “You don’t know do you? You really are dense Kazama. I’ll tell you her full name; _Tsukuyomi Miyuki_.” Kazama’s face actually grew pale as he turned back to Shiranui, “Is what he’s saying…Did I attack, no. It can’t be!?”

"That’s why we wanted to kill him ourselves Kazama; that’s why I left you...so her wish for revenge would be fulfilled.” It kind of hurt to have to say this because he knew that now it was too late. The only thing they could do was trying to save Miyuki before Kōdō would kill her or take her blood.

“Shiranui,” Harada asked, coughing up a little blood, “what’s this all about? Why-”

“I’ll tell you guys later, really. But for now…” He took a deep breath and swallowed hard, “What will you do, Kazama? Will you stay on Kōdō’s side now that you know what his plans really are?”

Kazama’s face instantly sank, he didn’t care that he had been shot by Shiranui because he deserved it. The Tsukuyomi line is where all demons had descended. Not only had he attacked and insulted the line his ancestors came from, but he willingly handed her over to Kōdō. For the first time in his life, Kazama felt guilt. “That’s a foolish question, Of course I have to help you now that I know,” he said turning his sword to Kaoru, “…but only for the sake of the Kazama clan since I dishonored our ancestors; I’m not doing this for your sake.” That was as close to an apology as he would give. 

Kazama stood there silently in thought. Before he was so very angry at the fact that this woman was defiant towards him, and then Shiranui left with her out of the blue. He felt as if he was betrayed in a way, and let his vengeance take over. But in the demon hierarchy she was above him, he would have had to listen to her. Why didn’t she tell him? Instead she pretended to be be normal, it was something he couldn’t comprehend. “I suppose she ordered you to keep this quiet and join her, with her rank you had no choice but to listen,” said Kazama since he couldn’t come up with anything else.

“She didn’t order me with her rank,” Shiranui said, but then he sighed, “but you’ll never understand, so I won’t try to explain it to you.”   
  
Kazama moved forward and grabbed Kaoru, disarming him and throwing the child at Shiranui’s feet, “I suggest you speak Kaoru, tell him everything.” Kaoru looked up and started to shuffle back, “I’m not going to say anything, so don’t even bother to ask me!” Nagakura and Harada moved in encircling Kaoru before pulling him to his feet and holding him in place. Harada smirked, “Hey Shiranui…didn’t you promise to shoot him for Miyuki? Maybe that will make him talk…if not there are always other ways.”

Shiranui hesitated for a few seconds before aiming carefully; in a way it It felt wrong, but he had to keep his promise to Miyuki. He pulled the trigger and fired, the bullet hit the boy’s body only millimeters from to his heart. “Listen, Kaoru. I’m not gonna shoot you several times like you did to her,” he said, “But a silver bullet right next to the heart must be more painful than anywhere else and enough to pay for every single injury you’ve caused Miyuki. But if you don’t speak now, I’ll leave you to Harada and Nagakura, and who knows what they’ll do to you.” He didn’t expect too much of them since they were humans, but he knew as well that they wouldn’t let anyone who hurt a girl that badly get away easily.

Kaoru winced and was visibly in pain after he was shot, but he still refused to talk afterwards. “You know, when someone hurts a friend of mine I can do some pretty painful things,” Harada said as he drove his spear through the demons foot. Nagakura grinned, “yeah, you do not want to mess with Sano…especially when a woman is involved too…he can get extremely brutal.”

“Heh, Do what you like but it’s pointless…It’s not like you could make it through the fury forces he’s built up,” Kaoru said once again refusing to give any viable information. “I wish I could watch what he’s doing to her, He’ll probably have her crying and begging for her life to end,” He said while looking directly at Shiranui. He was doing it on purpose just to fire the demon up and stall for time.

Harada pulled out his katana and drove it into Kaoru’s other foot, “I know she’s a hell of a lot stronger than that; she wouldn’t ever beg for death, right Shiranui?”  Nagakura took a small silver knife out and stuck it into his gut, knowing that was a particularly painful spot to be stabbed, “I think you’ll be the one begging for us to kill you when we’re finished.” Harada took the knife and began to move it ever so slowly across his stomach, “Where is she?”

Kaoru finally cracked and screamed out in pain, “Sendai, but you’ll never find her in time...If you do at all.” He spat towards Shiranui, “No, actually I hope that you find Miyuki, and that there is nothing left of her for you to bury!” Harada silently landed a rib-cracking punch to Kaoru’s chest near the bullet wound. Nagakura’s face looked like a snarling wolf as he said to Shiranui, “Can I kill him now? He’s /really/ starting to piss me off!”  
  
It was surprising - almost shocking - how much fun Harada appeared to have piercing Kaoru’s feet with his sword and spear, and Shiranui closed his eyes for a few seconds in order to calm down and not to stop him - ‘because Kaoru deserves it,’ he thought to himself, ‘it’s me who has become soft. I’d have done the same if I hadn’t met Miyuki.’   
  
“If that’s what you desire, Nagakura… We don’t need him anymore, right, Kazama? I mean, I think we got all the information we need.” He wanted to get over with this now so they could go and look for Miyuki in order to save her before Kōdō could do anything worse to her. He didn’t know when and why they had acknowledged him as their leader - because from how Nagakura had asked his question, it kind of sounded like that - but he was glad they didn’t act completely on their own since they were working together.

Kazama nodded his head in agreement, knowing that if they let him live he’d likely cause trouble for them or Chizuru. Harada removed his spear and katana, then pulled out the dagger. He held onto Kaoru as Nagakura took his sword and quickly pierced him through his heart, which was far more merciful than a beheading.  He removed the sword and Kaoru’s body became limp almost instantly. “I made it quick, he is still Chizuru’s brother after all,” he said while flicking the blood from his sword and placing it back in the scabbard.

After choosing to bury his body, Amagiri appeared, bowing slightly to greet everyone. “The remaining rasetsu in Edo have been slain as you requested Kazama-sama,” he spoke, “Do you have further orders for me?” Kazama hesitated for a moment, but then spoke, “Amagiri, we will head to Sendai and assist Shiranui in recovering Tsukuyomi Miyuki from Kōdō.” He turned his head in his usual cocky manner, “But our priority is to destroy the remaining rasetsu.”

Amagiri nodded in acknowledgement and turned to Shirnaui, “I will be happy to assist you Shiranui-san.” Harada and Nagakura looked at each other in surprise at this strange twist. “Well I never expected him to help anyone but himself,” Nagakura muttered. Harada elbowed his friend in the chest and said, “Well then Shiranui, we better come up with a plan on our way to Sendai. Oh and you have some explaining to do too about why Kōdō wanted her in the first place.”

“Right. Let’s just hope she doesn’t kill me afterwards if she gets to know it since actually I promised to keep it a secret - but you won’t tell anyone, right?” Harada and Nagakura nodded in acknowledgement, but Shiranui already knew that he could trust them with it. “Fine. So, eh, do you know what Kōdō uses to make the Ochimizu?”

“No, but I'm assuming it's important to all this,” Nagakura answered.

“He used the blood of demons belonging to the Tsukuyomi clan. The Tsukuyomi clan is, or better was, the very first demon clan. All the other demons are their descendants. But because of Kōdō the whole clan was slaughtered except for one person; you wanna guess who?”

Harada looked at him seriously, “It’s Miyuki, am I right?”

“…yeah and she’s their only heir now. That’s why Kōdō wants her because he believes he can create an even better fury from a Tsukuyomi demon’s blood. Who knows if they’ll even be furies, they could end up as strong as pure blooded demons. This whole thing defies nature; you’ve been born either as human or demon, you shouldn’t be able to switch between those forms of existence.”

“Even stronger furies, no wonder she didn’t want to tell anyone, I mean I wouldn’t what someone out to drink my blood either,” Nagakura rambled, “So that’s why Kazama has to help us then, cause she’s important like some kind of queen of demons or something? That sounds more like him. I mean we are helping you because it’s Miyuki…but I didn’t know why he’s coming along…” Harada shook his head and said, “Shin, less talking more running.”

“I’m guessing that he won’t make it easy for us in Sendai,” Harada said, “But I think we have the element of surprise on our side. He won’t expect us to have Kazama and Amagiri as well.” He continued to talk, making suggestions about how they should split into two groups to search when they arrived, but he noticed that Shiranui seemed to be lost in his own thoughts. “Hey, don’t look so glum,” He nudged Shiranui in the arm, “We’ll find her. After all you have Harada Sanosuke on your side, and I have a perfect record when it comes to saving women.”

“Yeah, I know.” No sarcastic comments, no protests - this certainly wasn’t what Shiranui usually was like, and he knew it himself. But unlike anytime before, he was honestly worried and he just wanted to get to Miyuki as fast as possible.

When Harada mentioned again that they should split into two groups when they arrived, he nodded slowly, “But that’ll make it harder for us if they attack us there. I mean, maybe he’s already using her blood now and then we’re the ones in disadvantage. If he sends his furies through the castle to stop us, we have better chances that one of us reaches Miyuki if we stay together as one group, don’t we? But in case you don’t want this, we can at least form two groups of one human and one demon so the two of you have someone who can protect you.“

This teasing was more like him, and Harada accepted it happily, “Oh, are ya sure? Isn’t it me who’s gonna have to protect you?”

Nagakura said, “Hey now we don’t need to be protected you know!” Harada looked over at his friend and said, “I don’t know, you did take an ass beating from Kazama earlier.” Nagakura’s face scrunched up as he said, “Sano…you’re an ass.”

Amagiri moved in closer and looked at Shiranui, “I feel responsible for not stopping Kazama-sama from his actions; would you allow us act as the distraction for the rasetsu so that you three can go unnoticed and assist Lady Tsukuyomi?”

“Lady…gosh that sounds so weird hearing you call her that,” Nakagura mumbled. Harada nudged him to stop talking then said, “Koudou wouldn’t expect us to work together, so this idea may not be so crazy.” A smile formed on his face as he finished, “Though that means we don’t get to see what Miyuki does to Kazama when we find her.” Nagakura muttered, “Who would want to see her angry, I sure as hell wouldn’t.”

Shiranui slowly nodded at Amagiri, “Yeah, that’ll be the best way, probably. Let’s do it like this, then. You two distract them, and we get in there… let’s go.“ Everyone increased their pace and ran towards Sendai.

 


	12. Answers and an Awakening

Miyuki’s eyes flickered open as she heard the occasional sound of water dripping. Her body ached all over from her injuries in the damp room, but that wasn’t the reason that she couldn’t move. The cold, but burning sensation skin on her wrists, ankles, and neck meant only one thing - silver restraints. She shouldn’t have expected anything less from Kōdō. After her eyes finally adjusted to the darkness she looked around her windowless cell, and saw only a desk with a single lantern lit. How long has she been out? And where was she?

Footsteps approached slowly, echoing in the cavernous room. “So you’re awake, demon princess of the Tsukuyomi,” he grinned as he slowly approached her. “Don’t call me that, and don’t you dare speak my clan’s name,” she growled while trying to move in her restraints, causing her skin to burn further with each movement. “I wouldn’t suggest that, you’re just going to put yourself in further pain if you struggle.”

“I don’t care about the pain,” she hissed, “I’m going to break out of here and I’m going to kill you.” He laughed for a few moments before reaching out and grabbing ahold of her face, “You aren’t going anywhere restrained like that.” He looked at her with a grin, “but I didn’t come down here to state the obvious…Instead I have some things to tell you.” He pulled over a chair and sat in front of her, staring at her coldly.

“You know, I never intended to wipe out the Tsukuyomi completely, I just wanted to experiment on them to learn the source of their power.” A small grin formed on his face as he said, “When they figured out what was going on I offered to just take one of you and leave everyone else alive, but your parents were a stubborn bunch.”

“My parents were wonderful people, and it’s because of you that they are dead,” Miyuki said forcing herself to remain stone faced, “I still don’t understand why my father didn’t take you head on, even after you turned some of our own against us.” He grinned and said, “You were just a little Oni and too young to remember, so I’ll tell you why.” He went on to explain that the Tsukuyomi had an extremely strong aversion to silver, more so than the other demons because of the weakened bloodline. When he was starting his experiments he began to poison the village's water supply with a silver compound over the span of a few months, slowly weakening them. Once he was ready to begin his attack they were unable to use any of their demon strength.

“You really are a sick bastard,” Miyuki muttered, "Poisoning and experimenting on your fellow demons? That's demented."

He let out a luagh for a few moments before getting back to his story. “Since you’re parents decided to act all noble and destroy their bodies in the village fire,” he continued, “I was forced to develop the Ochimizu from those in the village that I had managed to capture, but unfortunately no matter how I tried, only the blood of the true descendant would perfect my creatures.”

He stood up and moved towards her, “but now I can complete my research and become the strongest demon alive, and I will have an army that can’t be defeated.” He grinned like a madman and laughed, “Then everyone will have to bow to the head of the Yukimura, and I will gain the power I desire over this world.”  Kōdō took a knife and slashed at her arm shallowly, causing her blood to begin to drip. She struggled to move away from the wall, but her shackles didn’t have much leeway.

“This blood isn’t yours to take; it belongs to my family,” she yelled while watching him lick the blood from her arm, “Stop, You can’t drink from another demon! It’s forbidden in the code for a reason!” He laughed and continued to taste the warm blood, “The code died with the ten demon alliance a long, long time ago.” Miyuki desperately began to pull her arm away from him, but it was no use. “I can already feel the power growing inside me,” he said while moving away and collecting several vials of her blood, “I must experiment further.” Miyuki had a terrible feeling inside her stomach, knowing that a small taste wouldn’t satisfy him. He disappeared into the darkness, but returned a few minutes later with several furies by his side. “I thought you’d be lonely without all your friends, so I brought over some dinner guests,” he grinned maniacally, “Go on and feed, she’s the main course tonight.”

Miyuki’s eyes grew wide as they closed in on her and started to fight each other over her blood. The pain of their teeth in her flesh, sucking away at her open wound was intense. “No I can’t let him win,” she thought.  She closed her eyes and clenched her jaw, refusing to let a sound of pain escape from her mouth. Instead of the pain she thought about Shiranui’s warmth as he held her on the futon at Ikeda, the way he ran his fingers through her hair, and the feeling of his lips on hers. “You know that I really don’t like playing the damsel in distress role,” Miyuki thought as she felt the knife slash open her other arm, ”So please Kyo, find me, and quickly.” Once the last of the rasetsu had finished feeding, Miyuki’s head slumped with exhaustion. Her entire body felt weak and ached in a way she had never felt before. She closed her eyes and quickly fell asleep, and her mind slipped into her dream world.

~

The full moon was shining down on her in the clearing where she used to practice her sword fighting in her old village.  She smiled softly and picked up her weapons, practicing her moves amongst the glimmering night sky. Suddenly the wind picked up, and the sound of footsteps rustling through the thick grass approached. Her eyes grew wide as she saw a male demon in front of her; his form was very similar to her own. Long white hair, two extended ivory horns, and the blue tribal tattoos. Even the silver aura around him matched hers, but yet there was a vast difference in power that she had never sensed before. “Are you…the demon inside me?”

“I am the spirit of Tsukuyomi-no-mikoto,” the creature nodded, “I reside in the souls of all my direct descendants.” Miyuki instinctively lowered her head and bowed as he stopped before her. “Look up my child,” he spoke lifting her chin, “there is no need to hide your eyes from me.” She raised her eyes, and for a moment she gazed into his which were crimson red. “May I ask you a question,” she asked, “Why did I lose control around blood?” 

He nodded slightly and spoke, “You know that I was once a deity, however when I killed another of my kind I was banished and cursed. I feasted off humans to curb my thirst for vengeance, gaining the name demon. It wasn’t until a human priestess taught me to acknowledge my sins, and how to ask for forgiveness that I was able to curtail the bloodlust.”

“Acknowledge my sins,” she said deep in thought, “I suppose my greatest sin is wishing for vengeance.” The demon nodded and said, “Vengeance spawns from anger and hate; what you should seek is justice for the crimes committed against you.” 

“Accept the demon and become what you were destined to be,” Miyuki said aloud, “My father doesn’t want me to seek revenge; he wants me to become the compassionate, strong leader he envisioned.” It was all starting to make sense now. Her bloodlust started when her wish for revenge took over, she couldn’t summon her powers when she had lost her confidence in herself. “Justice…not revenge.”

The demon nodded his head and said, “You understand now, so do you accept me?” Miyuki nodded her head, and at that moment the demon stepped into her and faded away, leaving behind a feeling of warmth inside.  “Thank you, Tsukuyomi-no-mikoto,” she whispered, “I won’t forget what you taught me.”


	13. The Rescue

They stopped and looked up the castle walls. “Ready?” Harada asked, appearing to be very serious by now. “To get Miyuki back?” Kazama and Amagiri raced to the front of the castle gates. “Koudou, you’ve broken your deal and you lied to me,” Kazama growled, “Come out and face me.” The gates opened and a stream of furies poured out towards them. Once their battle began it was time for them to move. Nagakura and Harada found the back entrance and quietly dispersed the few guards that were protecting it. “You know I’ve never broken into a castle before,” he said with a child-like grin before Harada smacked his shoulder and hushed him. “Oh, right,” Nagakura said lowering his voice.

Once they snuck inside the castle Harada turned to Shiranui and said, “This place is like a maze…do you think you can use some demon powers to find her? Otherwise this will take forever.” They hurried through the halls of the castle killing the handful of guards they met, since their plan worked and they were distracted by Kazama and Amagiri. The closer they came to the center of the castle, the stronger Shiranui could feel Miyuki’s aura. Then, there was the door, looking just like all the other doors they had walked past, but this one felt different. Shiranui stopped and Harada and Nagakura stayed with him, “Is this where she is?”

“It… should be,” the black-haired demon replied, then stepped forward to open the door and yelled her name.

~

Miyuki had lost track of how many rasetsu Koudou had sent to her, and soon found herself unable to struggle anymore. The silver was preventing the multiple wounds on her body from healing, and the blood loss had started to take a major toll on her. All she could do was try to keep herself conscious.  
  
 _“Miyuki!”_

Suddenly the rasetsu waiting outside her cell turned their attention down the long hallway. Was she hallucinating, or did she really just hear her name? No it was Shiranui, she could faintly sense his presence as well as two others. Miyuki was about to respond when an exceptionally blood-lust driven fury sliced open her skin just below her neck, and fiercely bit into the wound. A whimper escaped her lips as it roughly tore away at her skin and lapped up the blood seeping from the fresh wound. Miyuki wasn’t sure how much longer she could stand this, and she knew the five furies in her cell would grow much stronger with each passing minute. Her dry lips moved slowly, and with what strength she could muster she called out,  "Kyo…help”

~

Nagakura gulped and said, “Uh, I think you’re right...” He pointed down the hallway full of furies, their red eyes glowing in the darkness as they approached. Harada readied his spear just as a ghastly sound echoed down towards them, followed by a quiet whimper of pain. He cringed for a moment, then heard a weak voice call out for help. He turned to Shiranui and said in a serious tone, “Let’s go, It sounds like we need to hurry.”

Harada ran towards the small crowd of furies and started to fight his way through. Nagakura did the same, skillfully slicing away at their hearts. “Hey these ones don’t seem any different,” Nagakura said with a grin while continuing to fight the group surrounding them, ”Maybe we lucked out and that blood didn’t change ‘em!” Harada took off the head of an approaching fury while saying, “go on ahead and get the girl, we can handle these guys.” Nagakura grinned and teased, “Yeah, and make sure it’s a real dashing and romantic entrance, girls love that.” Harada sighed while protecting his friend from a fury, “Shin, shut up and just fight.”

Shiranui hesitated briefly, then thanked his friends with a short nod and made his way through the fury crowd as fast as he could, occasionally shooting one or another one. He hurried through the hallway which soon opened up into a bigger cell, and on its wall he saw her there. She was covered in injuries and looked completely pale, the only thing holding her upright were the silver chains attached to the wall.  _‘I’m gonna save her. I’m not gonna lose who’s important to me again.’_

“Miyuki, hang on a little longer.” The sound of his gun firing echoes off the stone walls as he aimed carefully at the furies feeding off her body.  
  
The rasetsu stopped and all turned around as soon as Shiranui entered the cell and called her name. As one of their bodies fell dead to the ground below her feet Miyuki gave him a small smile and softly spoke, “what took you so long?” She knew her usual sarcasm would be a relief to him, but his first priority was to clear the room. The remaining stronger, faster furies leapt towards him. Miyuki knew he could handle them, but it was such a confined space making it a disadvantage for him to fight. Luckily for him some help arrived. “Hey, are you saving the tough ones for us,” Harada smirked with his spear at the ready. Nagakura jumped into the room as well and said, “Hey Miyuki…oh damn you look terrible.”

“Thanks Shinpachi,” she muttered, “Now why don’t you get to work and clear out these furies? I’d like to get away from all this silver please.”

Harada obviously was the one who had the most disadvantages in this room because he had the longest weapon to fight with, and Nagakura also needed more space than he had inside of a building like this, so all the two of them could do was more or less trying to distract and slow down the furies while it was Shiranui’s task to finish them off - but he could accept that. Although those furies apparently had drunk Miyuki’s blood, at least to Shiranui, they didn’t appear to be that much stronger than “usual” furies, so he didn’t have big problems defeating them. Maybe even the original Tsukuyomi blood would only make one stronger if said person drank it more often? On the other hand, Harada and Nagakura probably felt the difference since they didn’t have demon powers. Finally, he shot the last fury, hurried over to Miyuki and freed her from the silver chains, not caring as the silver burned his own hands.

Once the silver chains were removed it was like the heavy weight on her body lifted. As he gently helped her down she smiled and greeted him with a kiss, something she had been waiting to do for days. “Arigatou,” she whispered before grabbing ahold of him, “I knew you’d come for me.”

“I’m fine now,” she said noticing the worry on his face, “really, I swear.”  Her severe injuries, the weak feeling in her legs, and the pain didn’t matter anymore; He was there now, and she was by his side. Her bare feet felt the cold stone floor beneath her, and a chill spread over her body once the burning from the silver faded. “Why do castles have to be so damn cold,” she said as the goosebumps formed on her skin, “I really could use a night at a hot spring right about now.”

Nagakura popped out from behind Shiranui’s shoulder and said, “Yeah, Miyuki you probably could use it since you look so...OUCH, SANO!” Harada shook his head saying, “...and he wonders why he can’t get a woman of his own. Give me your damn jacket Shin.” Nagakura handed over his jacket to Harada, who then moved behind Miyuki to gently set it on her shoulders. “A hot spring sounds nice, but don’t you have some business to settle first,” Harada asked.

“I just got done being a four-course meal for the Rasetsu,” Miyuki said sarcastically while putting on Nagakura’s jacket, “the least you could do would be to let me rest a bit before I have to kick some psycho demon ass.”  She frowned and said, “Besides, I don’t even have a proper weapon.” Nagakura jumped up and said, “Oh yeah, I brought these along!” He lifted up the familiar Katana and Wakizashi with the woven red and black hilts with a grin, “we came prepared!”

She let out a slight laugh and shook her head, “I suppose it’s true that there’s no rest for the wicked.” Miyuki looked at Shiranui and asked, “could you help get me to Kōdō? I’m ready to settle things, once and for all.”

“If you’re sure you’re not too exhausted,” he replied but already knew she wouldn’t tell him if she was. Her injuries were slowly beginning to heal, and she already looked much better than before. He lifted her up carefully and said, “Let’s just hope Kazama hasn’t found him yet.”

She smiled and nodded, taking in the warmth of his arms and chest. Just a little more time is all she needed, and then she could end this and get justice for what he did to her clan. “Wait… did you say Kazama?!?” Her eyes grew wide, “That pompous ass is the reason I ended up here in the first place.” Her voice grew irritated as she continued, “Kazama was the one who attacked me from behind like a coward, and then willingly handed me over!”

“Uh, Well, we when we were fighting him Kaoru showed up,” Nagakura said slowly, “He said that you were some Tsuki-something princess of all the demons and his tune changed.” Miyuki folded her arms and said, “It’s Tsukuyomi…and I’m a princess! I’m a warrior.” Harada cringed for a moment sensing her anger and said, “As much as I hate to admit it, Kazama did help us and make a distraction so we could find you. At least Amagiri is keeping him in line.”

“Kazama helped?” she repeated in surprise, “HMPH, He probably only did it because of my family name. That’s exactly why I hide it from people like him.” She gave a rough sigh and muttered, “as long as Amagiri is with him, ugh, I have bigger fish to fry then him.” She pushed him out of her mind as they took off into the castle to find Kodou.

“So the rasetsu created from the Ochimizu could only temporarily became faster and stronger from my blood, so none of us should have to worry about them” she explained to the group, “But Kodou was able to create several new rasetsu directly from my blood, and those ones can take a true demon form.” Miyuki leaned into Shiranui’s chest and said, “They are likely the group that Kodou will have guarding him.”

“I doubt they will be able to use the full strength of my blood,” she continued, “however, I don’t know what effect my blood has had on Koudou since he’s already a demon.” Miyuki knew now that she had her inner demon on her side she would have a good chance of winning this fight, however she was worried about the others that were with her. While Shiranui was a demon like her and could heal up after the battle, the other two were still human.

“Harada, Nagakura…,” she said hesitantly, “I’m thankful that you came with Shiranui to save me, but If those new furies even have just a quarter of my strength in demon form it could get really dangerous for you both.” Miyuki frowned, “Shiranui experienced what can happen when I lost control of my form once before – but them? They have no souls and will just be ravenous beasts.” She bit her own lip for a moment saying, “so it may be best if we continue on without you.”

This time it was Harada who narrowed his eyes and clearly seemed to be unhappy with her words. “We came here with you because we’re prepared to die anytime when it’s necessary. We can die if we stay back, too - who knows which groups of rasetsu we haven’t seen yet are still wandering around here?”

Shiranui smirked; this was so like him. ‘Secretly he just wants to stay with us, and he’s trying to find a convincing reason for it.’

Nagakura added, “We don’t just run away when it gets a little dangerous. If one of our friends needs our help, we’re staying with them until it’s over.”

“And that’s why the Shinsengumi is so annoying,” Shiranui said, but the others knew that he was only joking. The last days, his last meetings with them had shown him that they were probably the better side to be on.

Miyuki was surprised by their words, but in a way she wasn’t. They had come this far, and she had seen what they could do. They fought with passion with no regard for their life as long as they were protecting something important. “All right, but just so you know I have enough people to avenge,” she said, “Don’t go and run off to die; I don’t want anymore added to that list.”

Nagakura grinned, “I don’t plan on drying, remember I still owe you that sake.” Harada nodded and finished, “…and that hot spring sounds _very_ nice.” Miyuki let out a small laugh and said, “yeah well don’t think that you’ll be joining me in the hot spring, that’s only reserved for…”

Miyuki quickly gripped Shiranui’s arm and said, “Stop.” They all instantly stopped running, and while Harada and Nagakura looked around Miyuki sensed the incoming presence. In a quick flash she jumped out of Shiranui’s arms and drew her katana just in time to block an incoming attack.

“You can’t sneak up on me, I could smell you coming a mile away,” she growled while staring at the fury with two short horns in front of her. Instead of speaking it just growled and threw her backwards with a familiar burst of power. “Dammit,” she muttered, ”I wasn’t expecting that.”

Miyuki jumped back up and readied her sword, allowing her eyes to flash gold and hair to turn white. She didn’t have enough energy to use her final form yet, but this would do for now. “Well, It’s time to fight boys,” she said, “I hope you’re ready.”

“We’re always ready,” Shiranui replied and fired the first bullet when more furies appeared. “Hey, Miyuki, is the only difference between them and the previous ones their power and speed? They don’t have some kind of ‘special power’ like immortality, do they?”

“Not that I know of,” she said while striking down a fury in her path, “I can die, so they should be able to as well.”  Miyuki threw her short sword past Shirnaui’s head striking a fury approaching him from behind. She quickly moved behind him to finish the beast off and retrieve her sword.

Harada pierced a fury’s heart and shook his head, “Looks like it. - Watch out, Shin!” He leaped behind his best friend and blocked a rasetsu’s strike. “But where is Kōdō? He has to be around here somewhere!”

 “We have to be getting close,”  she said while breathing heavier and jumping near Harada to behead another fury. “The problem is he’s hiding his presence,” she said, “...and all these furies are mudding up my senses.” Miyuki dashed forward and slew another one straight through the heart.  She needed to concentrate or else she’d never track him down. Miyuki rejoined Shiranui and said, “Watch my back, I need to focus for a few minutes.” She closed her eyes and focussed her thoughts on finding where Kodou was hiding at.

Shiranui went to cover Miyuki’s back, and he never left it while Harada and Nagakura took care of the furies approaching her from the front. They managed to kill every creature approaching them, but as soon as one died another appeared. Keeping them away was starting to it’s toll on Nagakura and Harada who weren’t able to heal their wounds immediately like Shiranui could.

Miyuki was finally able to sense his presence, “It’s time.” Her silver aura erupted around her body, blowing the furies away from the group. Her white hair grew longer, the twin elongated horns grew from her forehead, the blue tribal tattoos appeared on her skin, and then finally her eyes turned dark red with a golden iris. This feeling was so much different than before, so this is what it felt like to be in sync with her inner demon.

She looked at the group and her face grew serious, they had been injured while she was searching for Kodou. “Dammit, I’m sorry…You guys rest for a few while I finish them off.” Miyuki calmly drew both her swords before moving forward in a flash. It looked like she was dancing as she used both her blades to slice through the remaining rasetsu one by one. Even she was impressed with her combined strength now, but she continued to keep her thoughts clear and focus on protecting her friends in order to curtail any feelings of bloodlust. The technique worked, and she was able to finish the remainder of the force off in a short period of time.

Harada and Nagakura stood there next to Shiranui and watched with awe as Miyuki fought. "I can't even follow her she's so fast," Nagakura muttered. "Yeah, guess that's a true demon's power we're seeing," Harada agreed, "remind me never to make her angry."

Miyuki returned to them and said, “All done, are you three alright?” She released her form to conserve her power and continued, “This group was just another distraction, but I know where he is now. Kōdō’s in the main courtyard waiting for us.” Miyuki smiled and asked, “Are you two are ready to move yet? If not Shiranui and I will have to carry you both…We’re going to finish this together right?”

“Of course we’re gonna finish this together,” Shiranui said, pushing himself away from the wall. “Humans are annoying as hell, but those two are the only ones besides Takasugi who I’ll ever accept at my side.” He turned to the two men and finished, “So be glad about that, and show me that I was right to trust you.” Harada and Nagakura both had a determined grin on their faces. “Oh I’ve been ready to go, you two just won’t stop talking,” Nagakura laughed, “These are just a few scratches, nothing to worry yourself over Miyuki” Harada gave an agreeing nod and got up, “Let’s just hurry and finish him off; I’m starting to feel a little uncomfortable in here.”

“You see Miyuki they're ready, we can get going,” Shirnaui grinned

"All right, then let's go and end this tonight!"


	14. The Final Battle

Miyuki led the way through the castle towards the central courtyard quickly, but making sure to move at a pace where Nagakura and Harada could keep up. Once they finally arrived outside in the open area she was quite surprised at what she saw.

“Wait, Is that Kazama,” Nagakura said pointing to a blonde-haired lump on the ground in the middle of the zen garden. He wasn’t moving, and a sword was seen protruding from his chest. “Did he defeat Kazama,” Harada asked in surprise. “No he’s alive, I can still sense it,” Miyuki said while sensing the faint presence of another. “Shiranui, Lady Tsukuyomi?” spoke a voice from a few feet away, her eyes looked on and saw Amagiri against a tree. They both were badly wounded likely by silver weapons judging by their slow healing. “We need to help them, but be careful,” Miyuki said, “ Kōdō likely laid out a trap around them.”

Then suddenly a chill went down her spine as she heard a heavy hand clap in a mocking manner. A force of twelve Rasetsu in full demon form blocked his appearance, but Miyuki knew who was behind them. “Well done, you’ve made it this far,”  Kōdō spoke, “I’m surprised that you can even move Tsukuyomi heir, you must be stronger than I thought.” A mass of regular rasetsu began to close in on the courtyard surrounding them; setting the final stage.

“I have the blood of the Tsukuyomi in me, Of course I’m strong” she spoke loudly, “Now Yukimura Kōdō, it’s your turn to see what I can do with this strength. I have come to seek justice for those who you’ve slaughtered.”

“Justice? You’re father spoke of that foolish word a long time ago,” he laughed, “There is no justice in the world; only power and revenge. Let’s see if you can survive my forces to first, then you can seek your ‘justice’ you foolish girl...” 

Miyuki turned to Shiranui and kissed him passionately on the lips; but it wasn’t a goodbye kiss, it was for good luck. “I love you,” she whispered with an encouraging smile. He returned the kiss and spoke, “I love you to, Miyuki.” She closed her eyes and a silver aura erupted around her body, once again releasing her full demon form. “The quicker we finish this fight the more sake we get to drink,” Miyuki said while drawing both her blades, “Let’s raise some hell!”

Her body jumped forward and she could sense them covering her back as her swords reflected in the moonlight. Miyuki quickly drove through the hordes of Rasetsu, leaving a path of destruction behind her as she reached Kōdō. In front of her was the same man as before, except now he looked like a cursed devil. Red skin, black horns, and pure black eyes; the sight made her skin crawl. “Impressive, However I too have your blood running through my veins now,” he grinned as he drew his own blade and moved to attack her.

~

Shiranui turned around to Harada and Nagakura, “Let’s take care of those furies; Kōdō’s her opponent, so let’s watch her back.” The redhead killed the first fury nodding in agreement, “You don’t have to tell me twice Shiranui.” While Miyuki leaped towards Kōdō, the men concentrated on fighting back the hordes of furies, and killing them one after another.

Once again, Shiranui looked over to Kazama who was still unconscious, shaking his head mumbling, “I can’t understand how he could defeat Kazama. Of course he has her blood now, but that’s Kazama after all… It shouldn’t be possible.” It made him worry about Miyuki a little - but only a little since she was the one who had the strongest powers of all of them, and he had confidence in her.   
  
Nagakura helped Amagiri back to the group as they provided cover and fought off the furies. “Shiranui, be aware that all their weapons are coated in silver,” Amagiri warned, “Even Kazama and I could only take so much damage before it began to affect us.” The demon pulled out a bullet with his bare hands then finished, “Kōdō is not to be taken lightly.”

“Kazama underestimated him and charged into battle, which is why he’s unconscious,” he spoke while cracking his knuckles, “Be sure that you and Lady Tsukuyomi do not follow the same path.” Nagakura slashed a fury heading straight for them and said, “You know I’ll never get used to hearing you call Miyuki a lady…” 

Harada laughed and said, “Do you think Miyuki will give him the same lecture she gave you Shin?” Amagiri raised an eyebrow and said, “Lecture? The proper way to address her is Himesama of the Tsukuyomi, what is wrong with that?” After both men let out a laugh, Harada said to Shiranui, “Oh, speaking of, how is your warrior princess doing over there?” Nagakura frowned, “Yeah, all those furies are still blocking the show, Guess we need to get rid of ‘em…you ready to fight yet Amagiri….oh I’ll take that as a yes.” 

Amagiri had transformed into his demon form and nodded, “I shall retrieve Kazama-sama then return to assist you all.” Nagakura sighed and muttered, “does he have to, I kinda still hate that guy.” Harada said, “If Miyuki told us to help him after all that happened, then we should do it. Besides it’s the right thing to do.” Nagakura nodded and said, “You’re right Sano, Let’s make sure that Amagiri is covered.”

~

Miyuki blocked his first strike easily and snarled “You may have stolen my blood, but that won’t be enough to win Kōdō.” He unleashed a flurry of quick strikes forcing her to defend herself rather than be the aggressor. He was just wildly thrusting at her as he growled, “I have won already! I am a true demon now and have reached the ultimate form. I have given life to new demons who will see to my rise in status over all of Japan.”

“You are delusional,” Miyuki said as she sidestepped his attack, “Being a true demon is more than just the blood in your veins; It’s about the way you act.” She quickly gained her footing  and blocked his attack with her Katana, then began to steadily increase the strength behind her own strikes to drive him back. 

“A true demon would never betray another, let alone an entire village” she growled, “A true demon would never use humans for their own personal gain.” Miyuki then used her wakizashi to send and intense blow to his arm, cutting straight through to the bone, “…and a true demon would never drink the blood of another.” He jumped back grabbing his arm momentarily, giving it time to heal rapidly. 

“You are the exact opposite of a true demon,” Miyuki yelled, “…And that’s why I am going to defeat you.” She dug her feet into the ground then launched herself forward as fast as she could, her sword aimed right for his heart. But as she approached he began to laugh, and instead of reaching Kōdō his false demons reared their horns at her and jumped in front of him.

“You coward, come out and fight me on your own.” She was forced to fend off their assaults coming from all directions, however even with two swords and her speed she still took several hits. The injuries were shallow, but they stung sharply due to the silver. Miyuki was thankfully still able to heal in this form more quickly, but she wasn’t sure how long this would last before it started to wear her down. She had to defeat them, and quickly.

~

In exactly the same second when Amagiri told him that the furies’ weapons were made of silver, a sword hit Shiranui’s arm, leaving a cut - not a too big one, but it still hurt pretty much for such a small wound, and it didn’t heal right away. “I feel it, Amagiri, thanks,” he growled and leaped forward, loading his gun again. “And I’m sure Miyuki will kill you if you ever call her this himesama thing, because this is exactly why she avoids telling people her last name.” He shot a fury that made an attempt to follow Amagiri and turned around immediately to shoot the next one. “Hell, this is annoying…”

Nagakura had an idea and sheathed his own sword, then picked up one of the Fury’s weapons. “This thing feels like a piece of junk,” He said while swinging it, but when he sliced open a fury’s leg his suspicions were confirmed, “But this seems to be working.” He grinned wildly feeling invigorated again as he could finally deal some real damage to the furies. “Well would you look at that, Shin actually used his brain for once,” Harada teased while picking up a sword and tossing it past Shiranui, right into the neck of a fury behind him. 

Amagiri returned with Kazama who was now conscious, and in an extremely bad mood. “I have fulfilled my obligations, I’m done fighting now,” he grumbled. “I think he’s just pissed because he lost,” Harada said to Shiranui with a grin. “I did not lose,” Kazama growled while waiting for his wounds to heal, “I merely took a misstep, that’s all. Once I’m healed I’m going straight for Kōdō.” 

~

“Kyyyyyaaaaaaa,” Miyuki growled while finally beheading one of the improved rasetsu. She was growing tired and had only taken out half the force, but by then Kōdō re-appeared in an attempt to stab her from behind. She dodged his strike completely and said, “Still too much of a coward to face me head on I see.” Miyuki spun around and moved to land a strike that was blocked by one of his rasetsu, “Call them off and show me this ‘true demon power’ you have. I want to witness it for myself.”

“You wish to see my power,” he laughed, “I will have to decline, I need to make sure that you remain alive after all.” Miyuki felt the group start to close in on her and quickly moved to stop their attacks, “you want me alive?” He grinned wildly, “haven’t you noticed that my creations are trying to subdue you, not kill you. I still need to conduct more experiments.” 

Miyuki’s heart skipped a beat and she realized she had fallen for his tricks once again. He knew she’d come after him alone and that the others would leave his slaying to her. “Dammit,” she growled angrily refusing to give in and knew exactly what she had to do. “I need backup, please get your asses over here,” she yelled to Shiranui and her friends. If she was going to do this she needed them by her side.   
  
“Guess so; he could never really get used to losing,” Shiranui smirked towards Harada. “Just get it, Kazama, even as a pure-blooded demon you can lose.” In this moment, they heard Miyuki calling for them and while Harada and Nagakura already hurried over to her, Shiranui told Kazama and Amagiri, “You two come as soon as you’re healed again,” before following them.

They made their way through the crowd of rasetsu by killing them or at least injuring them with the silver weapons they had picked up, and only seconds later, Shiranui’s back touched Miyuki’s. “Too many of them, huh? He’s such a coward.”   
  
“Yeah, He has no intention of fighting me,” She said while piercing another in the chest, “he wants me alive and you three dead. We need to stick together.” Harada’s spear struck another fury approaching her from the side as he laughed, “You hear that, she wants me by her side too Shiranui.” Nagakura drove the silver laced sword through another using his best friend’s words against him, “Sano less talking, more fighting!”

With their help finally the group of rasetsu started to dissipate, and Miyuki could see Kōdō’s face growing with anger. “Wow he sure got ugly after he drank your blood Miyuki,” Nagakura commented as the red demon watched them fight. She nodded and said, “That’s because it’s reflecting his ugly soul.” Nagakura smiled and said, “so then you must have a nice soul then huh? You’re demon form isn’t so so scary!” Miyuki laughed, “Shinpachi, you finally said something right to a woman.” He seemed really confused for a moment as he said, “I did?”

“You’re chatter is annoying me,” Kōdō yelled while calling off his forces momentarily, “I’ve had enough of this experiment to test out my new children, It’s time for you all to die.” He released a dark black aura around his body and ran forward, moving at an insane speed. Miyuki inhaled deeply and jumped in front of everyone, taking the brunt of his strike as she blocked it at the last possible moment. “No, I won’t let you kill anyone else Kōdō,” she growled like a fierce wolf protecting her cubs, “...especially those who mean the world to me.” 

“Your weakness for those you care about disgusts me,” he snarled while pushing forward on her Katana which started to crack at the pressure, “I want to make you watch as I kill them all in front of you.”  The group of Rasetsu that were left moved back in to surround them all with their weapons raised.   
  
Hearing his comrades talk like this almost made Shiranui laugh, and the only thing preventing him from it was the situation they were in. He lifted up his gun and, while kicking a rasetsu backwards, shot at Kōdō. “You won’t kill anyone, Kōdō, especially not us. We have more important things to do than dying here by your hand. Right, Nagakura, Harada?!”   
  
“You’re damn right” Nagakura jumped forward, slaying another rasetsu, while Harada blocked a strike aimed directly at Shiranui, which was enough of an answer to him. “We already have plans for what we’ll do after killing you after all!”

Miyuki smirked and said, “I wouldn’t call caring about others a weakness, It’s the strongest asset I have as far as I’m concerned!” She dug her feet into the ground and took her left hand off the hilt and instead used it on her blade to help push Kōdō back. Her blood dripped down her hand for a moment, but she didn’t care. Now that she had some space again she drew her short sword and took out two furies at once.  

“I don’t dislike you as much as Kōdō, so I suppose I’ll lend you fools my strength as well,” Kazama said as he appeared with his sword drawn. Amagiri nodded and said, “as will I Himesama.” Miyuki raised an eyebrow and repeated in a low voice, “Thanks for the help...wait, Himesama? What the…” She quickly had to shift her body to block an incoming sword, and she took out it’s feet before stabbing it through the heart.    
  
When she stood back up she looked around and said, “Where did Kōdō run off to?” He was gone and only the rasetsu surrounded them. “I don’t know,” Harada said while pulling his spear out of a dead body, “probably hiding again like a damn coward.” Miyuki’s heart started to race and she felt a sick feeling in her stomach, something wasn’t right.

“I’m not hiding, I told you I’ll destroy everything precious to you.” His voice echoed in the courtyard. Suddenly she saw Nagakura grab his chest in pain after taking a direct strike, and Harada barely escaped a gunshot blocking it with his arm. And that’s when Miyuki finally saw Kōdō, and he was heading right towards Shiranui’s heart. “NO,” she screamed as her eyes grew wide. Miyuki used all her strength and speed to push him aside just in time, taking the sword into her own chest.

Kōdō stood there face to face with her, his hands still on the hilt as he looked down to find her short sword lodged inside his stomach. He started to laugh as he jumped back, pulling the sword out with ease and tossing it aside as he mocked, “You missed.” She felt her lung begin to fill with fluid as her demon form faded on it’s own. The next thing she knew she was on her knees on the ground, staring at the sword embedded in her chest.   
  
Kōdō laughed and said, “Oh don’t worry, that’s not enough to kill you, I made sure of that.”

Shiranui stood still for a second, shock hitting him hard, when Miyuki threw herself between him and the blade racing towards his chest. He saw nothing else than her falling to her knees, and he was barely aware of all the furies around them anymore. 

“Shiranui!” Nagakura called out, “Watch out!” Shiranui’s eyes widened and he barely dodged the strike, being saved by Amagiri who broke the rasetsu’s neck.

“Shiranui, get back to your senses,” he said with his calm voice which, just this once, showed worry. “Please allow me to stay with Himesama while she is injured.” He briefly bowed down to pull the sword out of her injury carefully, “I’m sorry Himesama, but with this silver touching the wound, you won’t be able to heal properly.”

Shiranui now let his demon form take over control, his hair turned white, his eyes flickered golden, two small horns grew from his forehead. “You’ll pay for this, Kōdō. You’ll definitely pay for this!”

Harada jumped behind him, blocking a strike and pushing back a fury, “What was that about the ‘less talking, more fighting’ part?” His eyes were dark of both physical and mental pain and suddenly, there were more rasetsu appearing again.

“We’re even more outnumbered than before!” Nagakura called out and screamed in pain only seconds later because he hadn’t been able to dodge a fury’s strike.

“Some of us need to get close to Kōdō,” Shiranui decided and quickly moved over to Kazama, “For once, do what I tell you and come with me. It can’t be possible that four demons are going to be defeated by a few rasetsu!”

Miyuki said nothing as she felt Amagiri pull the sword out of her chest, she just sat there and watched everything unfold before her eyes. Harada and Nagakura were losing strength and Shiranui seemed so full of anger. As the force of Rasetsu grew Miyuki grabbed ahold of her chest that was still bleeding, and started to try and stand up slowly. “Himesama, don’t move. You need to rest just a bit longer,” Amagiri said while killing another fury with his bare hands. Miyuki cringed, burying the pain as she said, “But...I have to help them.” Amagiri drove his fist right through the chest of another fury, “You will be of no use to them like that, now trust in them and rest.” Miyuki sat back down on her knees, listening to Amagiri who was right as usual. She would only get in their way like this, she had to focus on healing.

Kazama sneered and released his true demon form as well, “Fine, but only this once. I can’t let him get away with what he just did.” Kazama was prideful, but above all he respected demons as a whole. The fact that Kōdō drank the blood of the Tsukuyomi heir was a despicable act on its own -- let alone to then attack her in front of everyone. He started to focus his attention on the rasetsu protecting Kōdō, slicing them to pieces as he moved forward with renewed anger.

Shiranui followed Kazama, staying in his former comrade’s shadow and trying to save his power for his fight with Kōdō. Luckily, Kazama had a higher speed and power than Harada and Nagakura which made it easier for Shiranui to fight alongside him because they had a similar level of skills, and further, he was able to finish off the furies faster than anyone of the others could have done it currently.

They reached Kōdō a few seconds later because Kazama raced through the crowd like a furious flash. “Watch my back, Kazama!” Shiranui called out, loading his gun and aiming at Kōdō’s wrist to make him loosen his grip.

The fight went better for them now. With Harada, Nagakura and Amagiri fighting off the furies, Shiranui and Kazama got pretty close to Kōdō so they could fight him directly. Kōdō just laughed at them when Shiranui’s bullet hit his wrist and his sword flew away a few metres just to be caught by Harada who immediately drove it through a fury’s chest.

“Well done, Shiranui!”

“Same goes for you, Harada!”

They finally became more of a team, they finally were able to understand each other better and so, Shiranui only needed to give Kazama a short nod as a sign for the blonde demon to attack Kōdō from one side while Shiranui himself took care of his other side.

The rasetsu numbers were finally beginning to dwindle as the battle turned back towards their favor. She was amazed at how well they all were working together, and found herself just staring at them all with a warm smile on her face. When Shiranui and Kazama had finally reached Kōdō, Miyuki stood up slowly. The bleeding had stopped and her wound was partially healed so she drew her Katana. “Amagiri, thank you for watching over me,” she said, “I’d like you to help Harada and Nagakura finish up, then come join us against Kōdō.” He bowed his head and said, “..as you wish Himesama.”

“Oh and Amagiri, just call me Miyuki please.” He turned around and nodded, “Very well Miyuki-sama.”

She smiled and walked slowly towards the battle and watched both Kazama and Shiranui working together to go after Kōdō. It was a strange sight, but in a way it made her happy that Kazama was able to set aside his differences for even just that short period of time. Maybe there was hope for him yet.

She raised her sword to block a knife that Kōdō had thrown in her direction. “Mind if I join you,” she asked while standing between where Kazama and Shiranui were fighting. She released her form once more, and as the red and gold in her eyes flickered she said, “I can’t play for too long, but I don’t want to miss out on all the fun.”

“Let’s hurry and finish this then, huh?” Shiranui commented with a smirk that was supposed to hide his relief. He was glad that she apparently felt better, and he moved back a little to offer her a chance to attack Kōdō herself. “I’m sure you want to finish him off, right?”   
  
Kōdō growled at all of them and said ,”Who said that you could defeat me? You’re nothing but the last heir of clan that will be forgotten. It’s my name that the demons will fear and look up to.” He pointed his blade at everyone and said, “You all will either die here tonight or bow before me. begging for forgiveness!”

”I would never bow in front of an abomination such as yourself,” Kazama said while quickly moving forward and driving his Katana into the demon’s side. Nagakura nodded and drove his own blade into Kōdō’s other arm, “Yeah well we aren’t the type to beg for anything, and certainly not from you.”

Amagiri appeared and punched Kōdō in the gut, sending him stumbling back as he spoke, “I believe it is you who should seek forgiveness for your deeds.” Harada’s spear went past them and struck Kōdō in the shoulder as he yelled, “Agreed, It’s time for you to face the consequences for your actions.” 

Miyuki stepped forward and gathered all her power at once, she was going to finish this with one strike. “And I, Tsukuyomi Miyuki will make sure you will never hurt another living being again.” She moved like the wind once her words finished and drove her Katana right through his heart. He stared in shock as his demon form began to fade. “No...I can’t die...curse you all to hell...” She waited till his heart stopped beating before she stepped back and pulled the Katana out.

She collapsed to her knees out of exhaustion and said, “Finally, It’s over.” Shiranui let himself fall to the ground next to Miyuki and let out a heavy sigh, “In the end, defeating him was easier than I expected. I mean, your blood didn’t seem to have a big influence on his powers, at least not to me.”

Miyuki leaned against his shoulder and said with a smile, “I think it shows that taking something doesn’t necessary mean you are worthy of it’s power.” She stared up at the sky and at least to her, it seemed to be shining quite a bit brighter than usual. She smiled and let her body rest, finally feeling free from all her burdens. 

Another thought crossed Shiranui’s mind and he turned around to Harada and Nagakura who were sitting on his other side, “What are you gonna do now? It’s all over, so are you gonna go back to the Shinsengumi?” He remembered them mentioning that they didn’t get along that well with Kondou these days. “Good question,” Nagakura said, “What do you think, Sano? Are we gonna go back to them and get ourselves involved in fights with Hijikata-san and Kondou-san?”

“What else can we do?” was the redhead’s reply, accompanied by a sigh that seemed more depressed than relieved. “We don’t really have anywhere else to go.” And then, Shiranui said something nobody would ever have expected him to say. “I think… We are your friends now, right, Miyuki? So maybe you can stay with us?”

“Yeah, You can’t talk about leaving me after all we’ve been through together, that would completely break my heart into pieces,” she said with a grin, “I’ve grown used to your company...if you leave us I just might cry!” Harada smired and said, “I suppose we can’t make the girl cry can we Shin?” Nagakura shook his head seriously and said, “No, No, I can’t stand to see a girl cry…It’s like torture!” Harada laughed and patted his friend on the shoulder.

Kazama and Amagiri approached, and in a surprise move both of them gave a slight bow. “Tsukuyomi-sama, I hope that now we are even and that you don’t hold any ill will towards the Kazama clan,” he spoke in a low voice. Miyuki nodded decided to not hold onto what grudges they had in the past, “Thank you both for your help. And Kazama, I hope that you’ve learned not to judge a demon before you understand them.” He nodded, but refused to acknowledge what she said directly. Some things would never change. “We are taking our leave now, I’m sure we’ll meet again at some point,” he said while walking away, “Come Amagiri, we have some other business to attend to.” Amagiri bowed and silently followed Kazama into the darkness.

Miyuki smiled and said, “So about that hot spring and Sake...It’s all your treat right Shinpachi?” Nagakura’s eyes went wide, “Hey...I said I’d buy the Sake not pay for the night at the hot spring!”


End file.
